I had wanted to make The Idiot long before Rashomon. Since I was little I’ve liked Russian literature, but I find that I like Dostoevsky the best and had long thought that this book would make a wonderful film.
AKIRA KUROSAWATo be an artist means to search, to find and look at these realities. To be an artist means to never look away.
More Akira Kurosawa Quotes
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To be an artist means never to avert one’s eyes.
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The characters in my films try to live honestly and make the most of the lives they’ve been given.
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I believe that it is this quality that draws people to come and see a film, and that it is the hope of attaining this quality that inspires the filmmaker to make his film in the first place.
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I can’t afford to hate anyone. I don’t have that kind of time.
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When it is very well expressed, one experiences a particularly deep emotion while watching that film.
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For me, filmmaking combines everything. That’s the reason I’ve made cinema my life’s work. In films, painting and literature, theatre and music come together. But a film is still a film.
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People today have forgotten they’re really just a part of nature. Yet, they destroy the nature on which our lives depend. They always think they can make something better…
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It is the power of memory that gives rise to the power of imagination.
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With a good script a good director can produce a masterpiece; with the same script a mediocre director can make a passable film. But with a bad script even a good director can’t possibly make a good film.
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The role of the artist is to not look away.
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I don’t feel out of place. I think of earth as my home. If everyone thought this way, people might notice just how foolish international friction is and the would be put an end to it.
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What nurtures this root and makes it grow into a tree is the script. What makes the tree bear flowers and fruit is the directing.
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The Japanese see self-assertion as immoral and self- sacrifice as the sensible course to take in life.
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I like silent pictures and I always have … I wanted to restore some of this beauty. I thought of it, I remember in this way.
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Take me, subtract movies, and you get zero.
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The root of any film project for me is this inner need to express something.
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One of techniques of modern art is simplification, and that I must therefore simplify this film.
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The terrible thing is that people who are madmen in private may wear a totally bland and innocent expression in public.
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My films come from my need to say a particular thing at a particular time. The beginning of any film for me is this need to express something.
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I’ve been able to work for so long because I think next time, I’ll make something good.
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but ignorance is a kind of insanity in the human animal. People who delight in torturing defenseless children or tiny creatures are in reality insane.
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I believe you must live honestly and develop your abilities to the full. People who do this are the real heroes.
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I believe this is what the medieval Noh playwright and theorist Zeami meant by ‘watching with a detached gaze.’
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To be an artist means to search, to find and look at these realities. To be an artist means to never look away.
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They often reveal much about themselves in a very straightforward way. I am certain that I did. There is nothing that says more about its creator than the work itself.
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In order to find reality, each must search for his own universe, look for the details that contribute to this reality7 that one feels under the surface of things.
AKIRA KUROSAWA