“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.”

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…

I like unformed characters. This may be because, no matter how old I get, I am still unformed myself.

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.

Adding explanation to the descriptive passages of a screenplay is the most dangerous trap you can fall into.

The terrible thing is that people who are madmen in private may wear a totally bland and innocent expression in public.

Man is a genius when he dreams. Dream what you are capable of. The harder you dream it, the sooner it will come true.

The root of any film project for me is this inner need to express something.

Of all my films, people wrote to me most about this one.

Take me, subtract movies, and you get zero.

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.

If you look at everything straight on, there is nothing to be afraid of.

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.

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.

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.

I’ve been able to work for so long because I think next time, I’ll make something good.

Page 61: No matter where I go in the world, although I can’t speak any foreign language.

I mean, the heavy metal from the Seventies sounds nothing like the stuff from the Eighties, and that sounds nothing like the stuff from the Nineties. Who’s to say what is and isn’t a certain type of music?

Is there any more encouraging sign than to see an Indian, who has never been to a university, like our friend Mr. Asutosh Dey here, for example, carrying out original work and finding it recognized by the foremost societies of the world?

I’m dyslexic, I have attention-deficit disorder, and I’ve got something like a hereditary tremor.

I think love’s an infatuation that turns into a habit, because you can’t keep that passion going. You get used to people, and that’s death for me – I like to be surprised.

Truly, there is a Christian note which makes the whole World vibrate, like an immense gong, in the divine Christ. This note is unique and universal, and in it alone consists the Gospel.

Like most housewives, I don’t cook unless I have company.

I can’t explain to you what it’s like to be a heartthrob. I don’t think I am a heartthrob.

I would love to slip into the skin of a fish and know what it’s like to be one. They have senses that I can only dream about.