Seth MacFarlane Quotes

“Obviously I'm a big fan of 'South Park', but it gets tiring at times when there's so much of it.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“Evolution doesn't care whether you believe in it or not, no more than gravity does. I want to rekindle excitement over what we've achieved as a species with the space program. We can't afford to regress back to the days of superstition.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“The way Disney characters move, they're very kind of slow and fluid and flowing; one pose kind of eases into the next. If you look at a show like 'The Simpsons' and subsequently a show like 'Family Guy' - the characters will jerk from pose to pose a lot, a bit more snappy. Which sort of goes along with the writing tone of the show.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“If something is shocking without being funny it's hard to justify.”

— Seth MacFarlane

I still do a lot of drawing on a daily basis.

— Seth MacFarlane

“Science has become politicized, and that's an embarrassment.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“What makes me happy is just keeping my brain challenged and stimulated and on its toes.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“I can't believe I am hosting the Oscars. It's an honor everyone else said no.”

— Seth MacFarlane

'Family Guy' has this weird thing of attracting people. People either hate it or can't get enough of it. There's really no one in between.

— Seth MacFarlane

People do that on Facebook and it's the dumbest thing in the world. I don't care what your dinner looks like. Stop cluttering up the Internet with pictures of your dinner.

— Seth MacFarlane

The success of 'The Simpsons' really opened doors. It showed that if you were working in animation you didn't necessarily have to be working in kids' television.

— Seth MacFarlane

“I always thought it would be funny to have the Parents Television Council write an episode of 'Family Guy' and give them full creative control. Then see how good the episode is. That's something we've actually discussed in the writers' room. We haven't proposed it yet, but if somebody from the PTC reads this, it might be worth discussing.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“When 'Family Guy' started, we wanted to make it more like a sitcom. And there was very little music.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“Some of those more out-there jokes were written in the wee hours of the morning. Somehow, they remained funny the next day.”

— Seth MacFarlane

Fox is notorious for having a very thick skin about taking shots at themselves.

— Seth MacFarlane

“I love the English. My God, they brought us 'Benny Hill,' 'Monty Python,' 'The Office,' Neville Chamberlain.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“I have a car that I like - an Aston Martin - for Sunday drives in the country.”

— Seth MacFarlane

The trend today is vampires, zombies, angels, all the stuff that puts me right to sleep. It's too bad because it's so much less interesting than the diversity of stories you can tell with science.

— Seth MacFarlane

“I think at times I read too much of my own press. I wish I was better at taking in how great my life is, but that's surprisingly elusive. I tend to be very hard on myself and insecure about failing no matter what happens.”

— Seth MacFarlane

There are people on staff who have made that point, that the upside to a second Bush term is that it makes 'American Dad' work better. To me, the price is too high. I would gladly give up the comedy to have a President Kerry. But you work with what you have.

— Seth MacFarlane

“I'll tell you what I think is not okay. Have you ever seen that show on MSNBC, 'Lockup?' It's a reality show that takes place inside a prison. Do the prisoners have to sign release forms? Or do they have to be on it whether they like it or not?”

— Seth MacFarlane

“I'm big on the importance of science, particularly right now at this point in time when there's sort of a systematic rejection of science by a lot of people in America.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“I did a lot of theater when I was in high school and college. I also did stand-up in college, so it was always part of what I did.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“When you are in a room and your job is to write jokes 10 hours a day, your mind starts going to strange places.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“The problem with the cable networks is the lack of money, not from personal income but as far as show budget.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“The average person has eight different jobs over the course of their lifetime. You get a little antsy doing the same thing.”

— Seth MacFarlane

You don't want to be nasty for the sake of being nasty.

— Seth MacFarlane

“Chris Elliott could read the phonebook and he's funny.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“I was a huge 'Star Trek' fan. I loved the 'Twilight Zone' growing up. In the future, I hope to create some thoughtful, sci-fi drama.”

— Seth MacFarlane

I was about two years old when I first started drawing recognizable characters.

— Seth MacFarlane

“I'm one of the few people in Hollywood who actually had a good childhood.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“I'm sure there are close calls that we're not even aware of hundreds of times a year. You cross the street, and if you'd crossed the street two minutes later, you'd have been hit by a car, but you'd never know it. I'm sure that kind of stuff happens all the time.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“Every year, the Friday before the new Saturday-morning shows would premiere, the networks would do this big preview special, and I was always glued to the TV. As horrible as they were, they were entertaining at the time. There was a lot of showmanship from the networks based around the new lineup.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“I was a big Fred Flintstone fan.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“I wrote on a show called Johnny Bravo when I was at Hanna-Barbera.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“The Simpsons are ugly-looking, and they should be. That's what works. That's one of the things that's funny.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“I'm bad at golf.”

— Seth MacFarlane

'The Brady Bunch' asks nothing of you as a viewer. Sometimes is just what the doctor ordered.

— Seth MacFarlane

“There were two things that became apparent, pretty quickly into the process. One was that the muscles didn't take as much reconditioning as I thought they would. It was more like voice acting than I thought it would be. You're using your whole body and there are things that are different, but when you are doing a character, even in the booth, nobody is watching but my face will do different things when I do different characters.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“The only reason we die, is because we accept death as an inevitability.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“Religion notoriously claims that they invented morality, they didn't. Morality exists in animals, ya know.”

— Seth MacFarlane

[With R-rated movie] you're not dealing with the restrictions imposed by the FCC. They're self-imposed. In a way, that does make it harder. You actually have to think about it, as opposed to just taking for granted that you're not going to be able to do this.

— Seth MacFarlane

I distrust all television doctors.

— Seth MacFarlane

“From a writing standpoint, maybe television is a little more satisfying because it's not all hinging on one thing. You can experiment, week to week, and you can be a little narrower in your scope one week, and then be a little broader the next week. But with film, everything can look the way you want it to look. You can really sculpt the final product. So from a directorial standpoint, film is more satisfying. But, they're both forms of media that I'd like to keep involvement in.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“Nobody sets out to offend or shock for the sake of shocking. You set out to get laughs.”

— Seth MacFarlane

You break the story first, and then you go into the specifics.

— Seth MacFarlane

“Most of the outrage comes from not the public, but from the media, the press and writers.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“Even if you know a character really well, there's no formula for what jokes will work and what won't.”

— Seth MacFarlane

“I hate people who say 'Just to play devil's advocate.'”

— Seth MacFarlane

“Sarah Palin is very pro-life of course, unless the life is that of an Iraqi civilian or a wolf running frantically from a roaring helicopter while being strafed with ribbons of automatic weapons fire.”

— Seth MacFarlane