The films an audience really enjoys are the ones that were enjoyable in the making.
AKIRA KUROSAWAFor 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.
More Akira Kurosawa Quotes
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When I start on a film I always have a number of ideas about my project. Then one of them begins to germinate, to sprout, and it is this, which I take and work with.
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The truth is in the mystery.
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To be an artist means never to avert one’s eyes.
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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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Man is a genius when he dreams. Dream what you are capable of. The harder you dream it, the sooner it will come true.
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Take me, subtract movies, and you get zero.
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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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Yet pleasure in the work can’t be achieved unless you know you have put all of your strength into it and have done your best to make it come alive.
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Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing.
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Human beings share the same common problems. A film can only be understood if it depicts these properly.
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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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That is what makes a real movie. The script must be something that has the power to do this.
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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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If you look at everything straight on, there is nothing to be afraid of.
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While the cameras are rolling, I rarely look directly at the actors, but focus my gaze somewhere else.
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A truly good movie is enjoyable too. There’s nothing complicated about it.
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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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I can’t afford to hate anyone. I don’t have that kind of time.
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Man is a genius when he is dreaming.
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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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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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A film made in this spirit reveals the hearts of the crew.
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I am not a special person, I am not especially strong; I am not especially gifted.
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I simply do not like to show my weakness, and I hate to lose, so I am a person who tries hard. That’s all there is to me.
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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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The Japanese see self-assertion as immoral and self- sacrifice as the sensible course to take in life.
AKIRA KUROSAWA