Introduction : "It's all me"
"The pet in the family" : on the farm and in the city, 1901-1923
"A cute idea" : the self-taught filmmaker, 1923-1928
"You've got to really be Minnie" : building a better mouse, 1928-1933
"This character was a live person" : the leap to feature films, 1934-1938
"A drawing factory" : ambition's price, 1938-1941
"A queer, quick, delightful gink" : on a treadmill, 1941-1947
"Caprices and spurts of childishness" : escaping from animation, 1947-1953
"He was interested in something else" : escaping from film, 1953-1959
"This is where I am happy" : restless in the Magic Kingdom, 1959-1965
"He drove himself right up to the end" : dreaming of a nightmare city, 1965-1966
Afterword : "Let's never not be a silly company".