Quotes About Akira Kurosawa

#1. For many years, my favorite director has been the Japanese giant Akira Kurosawa.

Henry Rollins

#2. In a mad world, only the mad are sane. - AKIRA KUROSAWA

Michael R. Fletcher

#3. I'm a huge fan of Akira Kurosawa, a big Hitchcock fan.

Jennifer Lynch

#4. South Africa had very poor repertory distribution. I didn't find out about Akira Kurosawa and Tarkovsky and Werner Herzog until I got to the U.K.

Richard Stanley

#5. The cinematic language and interior destiny of each Iranian film-maker is different. The international influences on them vary from Rossellini to Fellini, Akira Kurosawa to Hou Hsiao-hsien, but there is a strong sense of solidarity.

Tariq Ali

#6. The term 'giant' is used too often to describe artists. But in the case of Akira Kurosawa, we have one of the rare instances where the term fits.

Martin Scorsese

#7. I want to be able to make westerns like Akira Kurosawa makes westerns.

Sam Peckinpah

#8. The great Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa said that to be an artist means never to avert your eyes. And that's the hardest thing, because we want to flinch. The artist must go into the white hot center of himself, and our impulse when we get there is to look away and avert our eyes.

Robert Olen Butler

#9. When I met Akira Kurosawa in Japan, one question he asked me was, "How did you actually make the children act the way they do? I do have children in my films but I find that I reduce and reduce their presence until I have to get rid of them because there's no way that I can direct them."

Abbas Kiarostami

#10. I'm not Akira Kurosawa. He used to write ... He used to write a completely new spec script over a couple of nights. I'm not like that. It takes me a long time to put a film together that I want to make.

Duncan Jones

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

Akira Kurosawa

#12. 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.'

Akira Kurosawa

#13. I can't afford to hate anyone. I don't have that kind of time.

Akira Kurosawa

#14. Yes, sir. Certainly, it was I who found the body.

Ryunosuke Akutagawa

#15. IT IS QUITE ENOUGH IF A HUMAN BEING HAS BUT ONE FIELD WHERE HE OR SHE IS STRONG. IF A HUMAN BEING WERE STRONG IN EVERY FIELD, IT WOULDN'T BE NICE FOR OTHER PEOPLE, WOULD IT?

Akira Kurosawa

#16. Page 61: No matter where I go in the world, although I can't speak any foreign language, I don't feel out of place. I think of earth as my home. If everyone thought this way, people might notice just how foolish international friction is and the would be put an end to it.

Akira Kurosawa

#17. 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?

Akira Kurosawa

#18. To be an artist means to search, to find and look at these realities. To be an artist means to never look away.

Akira Kurosawa

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

Akira Kurosawa

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

Akira Kurosawa

#21. Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing.

Akira Kurosawa

#22. The truth is in the mystery.

Akira Kurosawa

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

Akira Kurosawa

#24. 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: one of techniques of modern art is simplification, and that I must therefore simplify this film.

Akira Kurosawa

#25. In a mad world, only the mad are sane.

Akira Kurosawa

#26. Take me, subtract movies, and you get zero.

Akira Kurosawa

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

Akira Kurosawa

#28. 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. To be an artist means to search, to find and look at these realities. To be an artist means never to look away.

Akira Kurosawa

#29. A truly good movie is enjoyable too. There's nothing complicated about it.

Akira Kurosawa

#30. There is nothing that says more about its creator than the work itself. [Pg.189]

Akira Kurosawa

#31. If you want to be a great director, be a great screenwriter.

Akira Kurosawa

#32. I am not a special person, I am not especially strong; I am not especially gifted. 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.

Akira Kurosawa

#33. Man is a genius when he is dreaming.

Akira Kurosawa

#34. The great appeal of film is its relatability.

Akira Kurosawa

#35. The characters in my films try to live honestly and make the most of the lives they've been given. I believe you must live honestly and develop your abilities to the full. People who do this are the real heroes.

Akira Kurosawa

#36. The Japanese see self-assertion as immoral and self- sacrifice as the sensible course to take in life.

Akira Kurosawa

#37. It is the power of memory that gives rise to the power of imagination.

Akira Kurosawa

#38. To be an artist means never to avert one's eyes.

Akira Kurosawa

#39. The role of the artist is to not look away.

Akira Kurosawa

#40. 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

#41. I have no idea who the characters are, later, their personalities take over anything I might want to do. 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.

Akira Kurosawa

#42. The films an audience really enjoys are the ones that were enjoyable in the making. 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. A film made in this spirit reveals the hearts of the crew.

Akira Kurosawa

#43. Human beings share the same common problems. A film can only be understood if it depicts these properly.

Akira Kurosawa

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

Akira Kurosawa