I try hard not to judge anyone, and I try to bless everyone who is a part of my life, particularly anyone with whom I am having any problems

I don't know exactly where ideas come from, but when I'm working well ideas just appear. I've heard other people say similar things - so it's one of the ways I know there's help and guidance out there. It's just a matter of our figuring out how to receive the ideas or information that are waiting to be heard.

If you're doing a large, complicated character with radio controls, it might take a number of people several months to make it and if you're talking about a quick little hand puppet, it could be made in 2 days, so there's enormous range there, and no real easy generalities.

Actually the copies of characters is something I don't particularly like to talk about in articles but just for your information, most characters there's only one.

Well, Detroit Institute is kind of a key - probably the largest permanent collection of puppets in the US.

Yeah, I think we did the term Muppets before we got the show Sam and Friends - a few months after I started working.