Star Wars impressario George Lucas said it was "very, very painful" to sell Lucasfilm in 2012, but claimed he needed to because he is too much of a micromanager to retire. He felt he needed to be free of it to accomplish other goals in life, such as raising his daughter.

Paul Duncan, author/editor of The Star Wars Archives: Episodes I-III 1999-2005, interviewed Lucas and tweeted an image of a page from the book. In the excerpt shown, Lucas said that in 2012, he was about to become a father. He also was preparing a sequel trilogy in the series, which he knew from experience would take 10 years to complete.

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Starting in 2012, he reasoned, would mean that by 2022, "I'd still be working on Episode IX!"

"I was 69," said Lucas. "So the question was am I going to keep doing this for the rest of my life? Do I want to go through this again? Finally, I decided I'd rather raise my daughter and enjoy life for a while. I could have not sold Lucasfilm and gotten somebody to run the productions, but that isn't retiring."

He also noted that his own personality and habits were a hurdle. "On The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi I tried to stay out of the way, but I couldn't. Even though the people were friends of mine and they did great work, it wasn't the same as me doing it; it was like being once removed. I knew that probably wouldn't work again, that I'd be frustrated. I'm one of those micromanager guys, and I can't help it."

Lucas added, "I've spent my life creating Star Wars -- 40 years -- and giving it up was very, very painful. But it was the right thing to do."

Lucas sold Lucasfilm to The Walt Disney Company in a cash-and-stock deal worth about $4 billion. Daughter Everest Hobson Lucas was born to Lucas and his wife, Ariel Investments president Mellody Hobson, via surrogate in August 2013.

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Source: Twitter