55 Quotes by Dave McKean

When you just get fantasy stories that are about fairies or goblins, I just don’t care. I’m never going to meet a goblin, it doesn’t mean anything to me. So my definition of fantasy is very broad, it’s anything to do with memory, or dreams, or ways of interpreting or making sense of the world.

You could easily spend several lifetimes trying to master film. It make very good use of all the things that I love. Narrative, image-making, also sound and music. It’s so full that I can’t really imagine getting tired of it. Or getting to the point like I feel like I know it.

I love telling stories. And even in single images, I tend to have stories inside them. I’ve always loved film, but I was making drawings and paintings and photographs. And you put art and narrative together, and that really is comics.

Reading a good comic is a creative act. Watching a film is often a more passive experience, and since I’m interested in engaging that conversational aspect of creativity, I’m trying to find ways of achieving that in my films.

Pride in what and who you are is a strong foundation, but don’t be defined by your oppression; use your anger, don’t let it use you.

Usually, the most difficult thing to do is photo-real stuff. Something that has to actually look like the real world, because it’s just so difficult to do that. We’re just so used to looking at the real world, our brains instantly see when something is not quite right.

I tend to be known for different things. I mean, there are a lot of comics or sci-fi fans out there who sort of think of me doing that kind of work, but there are just as many people who like the CD covers I’ve done, or the children’s books I’ve done. So different people like different things.

Dreams are collisions of memories, they fuse the inconvenience of a mislaid pen with the grief of losing a loved one. They create hybrids, centaurs.

I like the adventures because you know that when they say, “I’ve got a plan,” and then they tell you, you know it’s not going to work. And when they say, “I’ve got a plan,” and they don’t tell you, you know it is going to work, and it’s all very exciting. I thought real life might be like that for a while, so I didn’t tell anybody what I wanted to happen, but it didn’t make any difference. I knew I was kiddin’ meself.