"No, I don't believe we've ever designed a character around a person. Usually, we start out with a kind of personality."

“I suppose that he's an alter ego. But he's a little snarkier than I am - slightly wise. Kermit says things I hold myself back from saying.”

“Jim was tall.  He was gentle.  He sounded like Kermit when he talked.  He was enthusiastic and filled with ideas.  He was also an astonishing performer.”

“The people who worked for Jim felt like family and he treated them like family.”

“People shouldn't come expecting to see the Muppets because they are not here. This is something else.”

“Indeed, Henson understood that to truly reach another person, you must aim beyond the intellect, at the heart—at the unguarded, joyful corner of the soul known as the inner child, which, incidentally, is where Jesus was especially focused. Puppetry and humor were Henson's tools for penetrating adult defenses.”

“There are people who think that we should never reveal anything, never show puppeteers and all of that. It tends to be something that parents worry about more than kids, because kids work just at face value.”