[2015, on his retirement] First of all, the CGI stuff definitely took the animatronics part of what I do. It's also starting to take away the makeup part. The time is right, I am 64 years old, and the business is crazy right now. I like to do things right, and they wanted cheap and fast. That is not what I want to do, so I just decided it is basically time to get out. I would consider designing and consulting on something, but I don't think I will have a huge working studio anymore.

[2015, on his retirement and practical effects losing favor to CGI] The whole business has changed. I had a 60,000 square foot studio, which was great for How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) and Planet of the Apes (2001). But it's not great for making a nose for somebody. And I've had that. I had one project where I had a guy making some teeth, in this 60,000 square foot building, by himself, in summer. My air conditioning bill was more than I was getting paid to make the teeth. So it just became time. Those big jobs don't exist anymore. As a young man, when I finally started meeting some people in the industry, I met a lot of bitter people, and a lot of crabby old guys, and I thought, "How can you be like that? You're in this amazing industry doing these cool things." And I didn't want to become that.

[After the death of his mentor Dick Smith] The world will never be the same.

Dick Smith deserves an Oscar more than any makeup artist I know.

[on Jack P. Pierce] He never had any real children but he had children who will outlive any children that he could ever have. Those monsters that he created will outlive me and people will be looking at them a thousand years from now.

So many of my dreams were to actually be able to make a living of what I did as a hobby. I used to have to save my allowances to buy a quart of rubber to make a mask, and it's how I spent all my free time. I still do. I got into this because I love the work. I didn't know anyone in the film business, and I didn't really have a plan B. It's a good thing it worked out because I would be sitting on the side of the freeway with a sign saying "Will do makeup for food".

I was always just fascinated with monsters in movies, and when I realized that someone actually did that and you could do it as a job, I just became obsessed with it.

The thing that I find so fulfilling about my job is I like the fact that you start with something that's just an idea in your head. You read the script and right away you visualize something and you see that thing that at one point was just an idea in your head looking real and alive. It's exciting and is a little bit like being Dr. Frankenstein. I want to scream "It's alive!"

The first make-up artist I was ever really aware of and became a fan of was Jack P. Pierce. He did all the great classic Universal monsters especially Frankenstein's monster. That make-up hasn't been outdone. It has become this iconic image. Everybody when they think of the Monster thinks of Jack's make-up.

I learned (makeup effects) on my own face, that's why I look like this.

When I did An American Werewolf in London (1981), David Naughton had basically no body hair. Benicio Del Toro is already very hairy so it was much easier to make him up for The Wolfman (2010).

Makeup is an additive process, you add to someone's face. It's easy to make someone look fatter or older. It's much harder to make someone look thinner because we can't really subtract from what's already there.