The Japanese see self-assertion as immoral and self- sacrifice as the sensible course to take in life.
AKIRA KUROSAWAPage 61: No matter where I go in the world, although I can’t speak any foreign language.
More Akira Kurosawa Quotes
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The films an audience really enjoys are the ones that were enjoyable in the making.
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Of all my films, people wrote to me most about this one.
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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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Human beings share the same common problems. A film can only be understood if it depicts these properly.
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In a mad world only the mad are sane.
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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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That is what makes a real movie. The script must be something that has the power to do this.
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I am not a special person, I am not especially strong; I am not especially gifted.
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The great appeal of film is its relatability.
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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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Take me, subtract movies, and you get zero.
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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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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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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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One of techniques of modern art is simplification, and that I must therefore simplify this film.
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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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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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The truth is in the mystery.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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A film made in this spirit reveals the hearts of the crew.
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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.
AKIRA KUROSAWA