The terrible thing is that people who are madmen in private may wear a totally bland and innocent expression in public.
AKIRA KUROSAWAThey 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.
More Akira Kurosawa Quotes
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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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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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Of all my films, people wrote to me most about this one.
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There is something that might be called cinematic beauty. It can only be expressed in a film, and it must be present for that film to be a moving work.
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There is nothing that says more about its creator than the work itself.
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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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While the cameras are rolling, I rarely look directly at the actors, but focus my gaze somewhere else.
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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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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 like unformed characters. This may be because, no matter how old I get, I am still unformed myself.
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The root of any film project for me is this inner need to express something.
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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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He is still my favourite author, and he is the one – I still think – who writes most honestly about human existence.
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I am not a special person, I am not especially strong; I am not especially gifted.
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A truly good movie is enjoyable too. There’s nothing complicated about it.
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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.
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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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One of techniques of modern art is simplification, and that I must therefore simplify this film.
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The films an audience really enjoys are the ones that were enjoyable in the making.
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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 you look at everything straight on, there is nothing to be afraid of.
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A film made in this spirit reveals the hearts of the crew.
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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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I can’t afford to hate anyone. I don’t have that kind of time.
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Take me, subtract movies, and you get zero.
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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.
AKIRA KUROSAWA