I would like to say that I live in Hollywood and I sleep in Simi. I am in LA every single day. I do not want to move there because I like the escape, the quiet in Simi.

I’ve driven across America, lived in New York and Los Angeles, made films in Colorado and Salt Lake City, and spent a long time in San Francisco. But I have only ever seen America for what it is, from a European viewpoint. I consciously choose not to live and work there. I feel much freer here. I actually feel quite threatened in America. New York is a world of its own, and Los Angeles is movie world, but as for the rest of America... Well, I’m afraid I don’t really understand it.

I'm happy in L.A., but I will live wherever my kids are, and I don't really mind where it is. source

Right now I'm in Hollywood— I don't like Hollywood, it's not really my style. But I've found my own little niche here where it's not bad. It's one of those things where I've been on an extended work trip here for 2 years. I still technically live in Chicago and I'm dying to get back. That's one of the big things for me, I go back to Chicago when I want to hang out. I'm weirdly very proud of my city, and I hope, God willing, I die there.

I would say it comes down to having your own life outside of Hollywood. It’s really just that simple. If you only live in the Hollywood world, you will be consumed by it. It will eat you alive. When you are finally spat out you will be someone who is wrecked emotionally, personally and financially. You have to have your own life outside this business. You have to have your own things that you dig, so that when you are told, “No,” and you will be told, “No” a million times, you will be OK and come out on your feet.

[About finding work in Los Angeles:] Some doors were open to me. An LA agency accepted me as their client. They took me to lunch at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and took great pride in telling me that this was where the film Pretty Woman had been filmed. I nodded politely but didn't tell them I had never seen Pretty Woman. I felt out of place. A kid from Surrey being wined and dined at one of Hollywood's most exclusive and fashionable spots. Between you and me, I would have preferred a box of chicken nuggets.

Sick of Hollywood, tired of fighting and selling out as an artist. I don't believe anyone should do the same thing for the rest of his life. We get a very short time on this planet. Challenging oneself is very important. It's not that I couldn't make other great animated films, but I'd done what I wanted to do, which was make animation an adult medium, if one wanted it to be. And I'd proven to myself that it could work, and it was time to move on to something else. When I sell a painting, I get very excited. I need one person to like what I do, not a million. It's a different structure here. Plus the Hollywood thing. I mean, Hollywood is no place to grow up, no place to live. It's no place to have any friends, no place to enjoy life. It's a disgusting, horrible, craze-driven town. It's only how much do you make, or how fancy a car you have, that determines your status there. And everyone's lying so much that they don't even know they're lying anymore. There's no reality to Hollywood. The fees they pay directors are obnoxious, the money they spend on movies could feed entire starving African... I mean, fuck 'em. I made a few bucks and got out. I don't want to spend the rest of my life with those people. They're disgusting people, and you can quote me on that. There's a lot of great talent there, but it's no place I wanted to spend much time. I'd rather spend time with Rembrandt and Goya at home. They're better company than those schmucks who never read Lord Of The Rings.

I don’t come from a family of actors, I didn’t grow up around it and so when I go to Los Angeles for work, or to a premiere, I like it because it feels like I’m just popping in.

It’s easier with the paparazzi in Los Angeles, because they give you more space and don’t push you or touch you. I believe I will never only live in Israel, so Los Angeles will be home at least for the next few years.

I normally live in Los Angeles, if you can call it normal living.

When I went to LA during the first months it was hard because I had no family and friends there (…) So I had to make sacrifices, waking up at 5 am to audition and writing every morning a script and sending it to production companies and competitions.

[The robot] Sophia has been granted citizenship in Saudi Arabia. And Homer Simpson has been given citizenship in Winnipeg, Ontario. Both decisions are silly. The difference is that the city of Winnipeg acknowledged that their action was a joke.

When my mom took my friends and me to see dad's movies, they would be scared, but to me, it was just my dad on the screen. When I moved back to Los Angeles, I was in the middle of the ninth grade. So I was pretty much a Los Angeles resident from the time I was fourteen, fifteen years old. While I was in high school, I didn't want so much attention; I'd rather keep a low profile.

Best way to live in California is to be from somewheres else.