Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing.
AKIRA KUROSAWAThat is what makes a real movie. The script must be something that has the power to do this.
More Akira Kurosawa Quotes
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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 end up writing not from my own will, but from theirs-they come alive as I write and make me do things that I couldn’t have planned.
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I am not a special person, I am not especially strong; I am not especially gifted.
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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.
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If I were to write anything at all, it would turn out to be nothing but talk about movies. In other words, take ‘myself,’ subtract ‘movies,’ and the result is ‘zero.’
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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.
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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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Movie directors, or should I say people who create things, are very greedy and they can never be satisfied… That’s why they can keep on working.
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Man is a genius when he is dreaming.
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By doing this I sense instantly when something isn’t right. Watching something does not mean fixing your gaze on it, but being aware of it in a natural way.
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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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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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One of techniques of modern art is simplification, and that I must therefore simplify this film.
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To be an artist means never to avert one’s eyes.
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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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Although human beings are incapable of talking about themselves with total honesty, it is much harder to avoid the truth while pretending to be other people.
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It is the power of memory that gives rise to the power of imagination.
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During the shooting of a scene the director’s eye has to catch even the minutest detail. But this does not mean glaring concentratedly at the set.
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The role of the artist is to not look away.
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Adding explanation to the descriptive passages of a screenplay is the most dangerous trap you can fall into.
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I suppose all of my films have a common theme. If I think about it, though, the only theme I can think of is really a question: Why can’t people be happier together?
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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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That is what makes a real movie. The script must be something that has the power to do this.
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If you look at everything straight on, there is nothing to be afraid of.
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They don’t know it, but they’re losing nature. They don’t see that they’re going to perish. The most important things for human beings are clean air and clean water.
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It’s easy to explain the psychological state of a character at a particular moment, but it’s very difficult to describe it through the delicate nuances of action and dialogue. Yet it is not impossible.
AKIRA KUROSAWA