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" The writers led by Mike Scully are fantastic. And they're creating original stories that not only don't repeat what we've already done, they also don't repeat anything I've seen on television. "
Matt Groening
Original
Done
Creating
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" Donuts. Is there anything they can't do? "
Matt Groening
Donuts
Anything
" I think 'Family Guy' and 'American Dad' have definitely staked out their own style and territory, and now the accusations are coming that 'The Simpsons' is taking jokes from 'Family Guy.' And I can tell you, that ain't the case. "
Matt Groening
You
American
Family
" Back in high school, I wrote a novel about a character named Bart Simpson. I thought it was a very unusual name for a kid at the time. I had this idea of an angry father yelling 'Bart,' and Bart sounds kind of like bark - like a barking dog. "
Matt Groening
Time
Dog
Father
" I want it to go on, but I want us to go out on top. "
Matt Groening
Top
Us
Want
" Most TV shows don't reward you for paying attention. "
Matt Groening
TV Shows
Most
Reward
" The thing about a cartoon is, you can do whatever you want. The tightrope that we are walking on 'The Simpsons' and 'Futurama' is 'How do you continue to surprise the audience, but make them good surprises?' Not every surprise is good, but you want to continue jolting people. "
Matt Groening
You
Walking
Surprise
" I grew up completely overwhelmed by TV, and part of the reason why I have gone into television is as a way to justify to myself all those wasted hours of watching TV as a kid. I can now look back and say, 'Oh, that was research.' "
Matt Groening
Say
Look
Television
" Cartooning is for people who can't quite draw and can't quite write. You combine the two half-talents and come up with a career. "
Matt Groening
Career
Up
Write
" I was always frightened by taverns. They just seemed like very unpleasant places to go. "
Matt Groening
Just
Go
Always
" I've conducted an experiment on my kids. Instead of denying them access to media, I've encouraged it. They read comic books, play Nintendo and watch way too much TV. "
Matt Groening
Way
Media
Watch
" Since I was there in the very beginning, I know the history of the characters. So, I make comments about the tone and sometimes remind the writers that we've done that before. "
Matt Groening
Beginning
Done
History
" We have 'Doctor Who' references on 'Futurama,' but we have a lot of science fiction references that I don't get; but in the staff we have experts on 'Star Trek,' 'Star Wars,' 'Doctor Who' and 'Dungeons and Dragons.' "
Matt Groening
Doctor
Science
Star
" 'The Simpsons' was about children and married parents; 'Futurama' is about people in between; they're growing up and haven't settled down. Every other cartoon show seemed to be, you know, dumb dad, bratty kids. "
Matt Groening
People
Growing Up
Parents
" We did 'The Simpsons Movie,' which took almost four years; it was the same people that do the TV show, and it just killed us. So that's why there hasn't been a second movie. But I imagine if the show ever does go off the air, they'll start doing movies. "
Matt Groening
Doing
Air
People
" A lot of people believe that if everybody just did what they were told - obeyed - everything would be fine. But that's not what life is all about. That's not real. It's never going to happen. "
Matt Groening
People
Never
Real
" It's just hard not to listen to TV: it's spent so much more time raising us than parents have. "
Matt Groening
Listen
Hard
More
" 'The Simpsons' basically - and 'Futurama' - are really smart shows. They're kind of disguised as these goofy animated sitcoms, but the references within the shows, if you're paying attention, are pretty smart and pretty sophisticated. "
Matt Groening
Kind
Goofy
You
" As astute followers of 'Life in Hell' will notice, Akbar and Jeff wear the same striped T-shirt as Charlie Brown. 'Peanuts' was very important to me. "
Matt Groening
T-Shirt
Life
Will
" God often gives nuts to toothless people. "
Matt Groening
Nuts
Often
Gives
" My father was a really sharp cartoonist and filmmaker. He used to tape-record the family surreptitiously, either while we were driving around or at dinner, and in 1963 he and I made up a story about a brother and a sister, Lisa and Matt, having an adventure out in the woods with animals. "
Matt Groening
Adventure
Father
Sister
" I know for a fact, obviously, because my kids grew up watching the show, that there are some things they are introduced to from 'The Simpsons', and then later in life they see the thing we're parodying. My kids had not seen 'Casablanca,' and we'd done parodies of 'Casablanca.' "
Matt Groening
Life
Watching
Know
" When DVDs finally disappear, I'm going to be sad. I'll miss the commentaries. "
Matt Groening
Sad
Miss
Going
" Sometimes people try to read into my strip and find out what my state of mind is. And I can say if I'm in a good mood, generally the comic strip starts out in a good mood, but the punchline is very negative and sour. "
Matt Groening
Mind
Good
People
" 'The Simpsons' obviously is a huge success, and Fox has nothing to do with its success, with its creative success, and as a result they don't really like the show. They don't like 'The Simpsons' at Fox. "
Matt Groening
Fox
Success
Creative
" The scary thing about the future... there will be tiny cameras everywhere, and they'll be flying around like mosquitoes and drones. That will be bad. Drones are scary. You can't reason with a drone. "
Matt Groening
Scary
Reason
Flying
" We've got a bunch of new writers now who tell me they grew up watching The Simpsons. It's bizarre, and they're writing some very funny stuff. "
Matt Groening
Me
Writing
Funny
" If I have one technology tip of the day, it's this: No matter how good the video on YouTube is, don't read the comments, just don't, because it will make you hate all humans. "
Matt Groening
Matter
You
Technology
" Love is a perky elf dancing a merry little jig and then suddenly he turns on you with a miniature machine gun. "
Matt Groening
Little
Dancing
You
" There's always room out there for the hand-drawn image. I personally like the imperfection of hand drawing as opposed to the slick look of computer animation. But you can do good stuff either way. The Pixar movies are amazing in what they do, but there's plenty of independent animators who are doing really amazing things as well. "
Matt Groening
Drawing
Good
Imperfection
" I love the idea that we put in jokes the kids don't get. And that later, when they grow up and read a few books and go to college and watch the show again, they can get it on a completely different level. "
Matt Groening
Grow
Go
Love