33 Akira Kurosawa Quotes

Akira Kurosawa quotes

1. In a mad world, only the mad are sane.

2. Man is a genius when he is dreaming.

3. With a good script, a good director can produce a masterpiece. With the same script, a mediocre director can produce a passable film. But with a bad script even a good director can't possibly make a good film. For truly cinematic expression, the camera and the microphone must be able to cross both fire and water. The script must be something that has the power to do this.

4. It is quite enough if a human being has but one thing where he is strong. If a human being were strong in everything it wouldn't be nice for other people, would it?.

5. There is nothing that says more about its creator than the work itself.

6. If a meaningless person says something is meaningless, that's probably proof that it isn't meaningless; and if a boring person says something is boring, that's probably proof that it's interesting.

7. Perhaps it is the power of memory that gives rise to the power of imagination.

8. I am often asked why I don't pass on to young people what I have accomplished over the years. Actually, I would like very much to do so. Ninety-nine percent of those who worked as my assistant directors have now become directors in their own right. But I don't think any of them took the trouble to learn the most important things.

9. Ran (film)

10. Seven Samurai

11. Rashomon (film)

1. The truth is in the mystery.

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

3. Take me, subtract movies, and you get zero.

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

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

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

7. 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?

8. Of all my films, people wrote to me most about this one... ...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. He is still my favourite author, and he is the one - I still think - who writes most honestly about human existence.

9. If you want to be a great director, be a great screenwriter.

10. 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.

11. A truly good movie is enjoyable too. There’s nothing complicated about it.

12. 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. When it is very well expressed, one experiences a particularly deep emotion while watching that film. 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.

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

14. 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. 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. It is to make it nurture and grow that I write my script- it is directing it that makes my tree blossom and bear fruit.

15. 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.'

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

17. Something that you should take particular notice of is the fact that the best scripts have very few explanatory passages. Adding explanation to the descriptive passages of a screenplay is the most dangerous trap you can fall into. 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. A great deal about this can be learned from the study of the great plays, and I believe the ‘hard-boiled’ detective novels can also be very instructive.

18. The role of the artist is to not look away.

19. 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... 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.

20. I can’t afford to hate anyone. I don’t have that kind of time.

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

22. 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.