With animation, because you can draw anything and do anything and have the characters do whatever you want, the tendency is to be very loose with the boundaries and the rules. Matt Groening Read Quote
With ‘Futurama,’ I was just worried that somebody would beat us to it; it seemed so obvious that there should be an animated science fiction show set in the future. And one of the reasons why it’s not, I learned, is that it’s really, really difficult. Matt Groening Read Quote
I loved literary science fiction. In fact, as a kid, when I was reading science fiction, I thought ‘I can’t wait for the future when the special effects are good’ to represent what was in these books by Arthur C. Clarke, Alfred Bester, Philip K. Dick, J.G. Ballard, Jack Vance. Matt Groening Read Quote
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 Read Quote
The nice thing about ‘Futurama’ for me personally was that it was a way to honor some of the traditional ideas in literary science fiction, not so much movie or television science fiction – although we have that too, obviously. Our situation, a workplace comedy, led to all sorts of stuff. Matt Groening Read Quote
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 Read Quote
One of the things I would like to do is make up stories that I would have enjoyed when I was a kid. So, if I’m thinking about an audience, it’s usually a younger version of myself. Matt Groening Read Quote
I draw a weekly comic strip called Life in Hell, which is syndicated in about 250 newspapers. That’s what I did before The Simpsons, and what I plan to do for the rest of my life. Matt Groening Read Quote
Because good writing in a TV cartoon is so rare, I think the animation on The Simpsons is often overlooked. Matt Groening Read Quote
