Quotes from Akira Kurosawa

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

And then what?" I asked. "Her father at last understood my feeling," claims Uekusa. "And what happened with the girl after that?" I queried. "Never saw her again, but we were just kids anyway." I think I understand and yet I don't.

On these occasions I do feel an urge to talk about my work. Nevertheless, I try not to. If what I have said in my film is true, someone will understand.

Perhaps because I was just a child, I didn't perceive the slightest specter of our dark militarism.

With the exception of rainy days, my entire summer was spent in this kind of mountain samurai's existence.

They told us not to drink the water from one of our neighborhood wells. The reason was that the wall surrounding the well had some kind of strange notation written on it in white chalk. This was supposedly a Korean code indication that the well water had been poisoned. I was flabbergasted. The truth was that the strange notation was a scribble I myself had written. Seeing adults behaving like this, I couldn't help shaking my head and wondering what human beings are all about.

The result of my newfound courage was climbing the waterfall tunnel, slipping and going over the falls and later diving into a whirlpool. Not very smart. But even though I pursued such foolishness, in the course of this one summer vacation this particular descendant of Abe Sadato became considerably more robust.

I had slept like a log, and I couldn't remember anything frightening from my dreams. This seemed so strange to me that I asked my brother how it could have come about. "If you shut your eyes to a frightening sight, you end up being frightened. If you look at everything straight on, there is nothing to be afraid of." Looking back on that excursion now, I realize that it must have been horrifying for my brother too. It had been an expedition to conquer fear.

He was a wonderful teacher. A really good teacher doesn't seem like a teacher at all; that's exactly how this man was.

Aunt Togashi should have lived, judging by her general physical condition, to be about a hundred and ten years old. But a stupid doctor had a theory about extending her life span even longer by making her eat strange things like pine wood and tree roots. Because of this she died without even reaching the age of ninety.

ORDINARILY, children are supposed to spend their childhood like saplings sheltered in a greenhouse. Even if on occasion some wind or rain of the real world slips in through the cracks, a child is not supposed to be weatherbeaten in earnest by the sleet and snow.

By comparison with them, among today's schoolteachers there are too many plain "salary-man" drudges. Or perhaps even more than salary men, there are too many bureaucrat types among those who become teachers. The kind of education these people dispense isn't worth a damn. There's absolutely nothing of interest in it. So it's no wonder that students today prefer to spend their time reading comic books.

Besides these people there are many directors I revere as teachers: Shimazu Yasujir? (1897–1945), Yamanaka Sadao (1909–1938), Mizoguchi Kenji, Ozu Yasujir? and Naruse Mikio. When I think about these people, I want to raise my voice in that old song: "… thanks for our teacher's kindness, we have honored and revered.…" But none of them can hear me now.

In a mad world, only the mad are sane.

Man is a genius when he is dreaming.

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

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

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 they would put an end to it.

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?

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

Although human beings are incapable of talking about themselves with total honesty, it is much harder to avoid the truth while pretending to be other people. 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.

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.

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.

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?