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Walter Elias Disney was an American animator, film producer, and entrepreneur who co-founded The Walt Disney Company and created some of the most enduring characters and stories in entertainment history. He built his empire on the belief that imagination was not a luxury but a human necessity — that stories, characters, and laughter were not escapism but sustenance. Donald Duck, who debuted in 1934, became one of his most beloved creations precisely because of his flaws: his temper, his stubbornness, his spectacular inability to keep it together. Disney understood that the imperfect characters are the ones we love most, because they're the ones who remind us of ourselves.

June 9 is Donald Duck Day, marking the date in 1934 when Donald Duck made his first appearance. Donald Duck Day is ostensibly a celebration of a cartoon duck. But Disney's quote points to why that duck has been making people laugh for over 90 years. The things that endure — the characters, the stories, the moments of genuine delight — endure because they are made of imagination and dreams, which don't age the way everything else does. A child laughing at Donald's latest catastrophe and an adult laughing at the same scene are having the exact same experience. That's not a small thing. That's the whole magic of it.