Akira Kurosawa.

Human Beings Are Unable to Be Honest with Themselves About Themselves. They Cannot Talk About Themselves Without Embellishing.

To Have Not Seen the Films of Satyajit Ray Is to Have Lived in the World Without Ever Having Seen the Moon and the Sun.

Being an Artist Means Not Having to Avert One’s Eyes.

I Believe That What Pertains Only to Myself Is Not Interesting Enough to Record and Leave Behind Me. More Important Is My Conviction That 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.

I Begin Rehearsals in the Actors’ Dressing Room. First I Have Them Repeat Their Lines, and Gradually Proceed to the Movements. but This Is Done with Costumes and Makeup on from the Beginning; Then We Repeat Everything on the Set. the Thoroughness of the Rehearsals Makes the Actual Shooting Every Time Very Short. We Don’t Rehearse Just the Actors, but Every Part of Every Scene the Camera Movements, the Lightning, Everything.

The Role of a Director Encompasses the Coaching of the Actors, the Cinematography, the Sound Recording, the Art Direction, the Music, the Editing and the Dubbing and Sound Mixing. Altough These Can Be Thought of as Separate Occupations, I Do Not Regard Them as Independent. I See Them All Melting Together Under the Heading of Direction

Unless You Know Every Aspect and Phase of the Film Production Process, You Can’t Be a Movie Director. a Movie Director Is Like a Front Line Commanding Officer. He Needs a Thorough Knowledge of Every Branch of the Service, and If He Doesn’t Command Each Division, He Cannot Command the Whole.

A Film Director Has to Convince a Great Number of People to Follow Him and Work with Him. I Often Say, Although I Am Certainly Not a Militarist, That If You Compare the Production Unit to an Army, the Script Is the Battle Flag and the Director Is the Commander of the Front Line. from the Moment Production Begins to the Moment It Ends, There Is No Telling What Will Happen. the Director Must Be Able to Respond to Any Situation, and He Must Have the Leadership Ability to Make the Whole Unit Go Along with His Responses.

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.

A Film Is Never Really Good Unless the Camera Is an Eye in the Head of a Poet.

Never Having Seen a Satyajit Ray Film Is Like Never Having Seen the Sun or the Moon.

Civilization Has Poisoned Humanity. the Backbone of a Good Film Is the Filmmaker’s Humane Character. If We Are Not Honest to Ourselves, We Will Never Be Able to Make Decent Films. Actually, It Doesn’t Mean That If a Country Is Well Off, It Is Necessarily Capable of Making Good Films. a Person, Who Is Able to Make Good Films, Knows How to Find His or Her Way into the Viewer’s Heart; Such as John Ford, Jean Renoir, John Huston, Federico Fellini, Theodoros Angelopoulos, Sidney Lumet… I’ve Met Every One of Them and Have Spoken to Them. Just as They Have Exceptional Works, They Were Also Very Distinguished in Character. It Was Very Easy to Establish a Cordial Relationship with Them, Which Is Quite Important. the People That Are Depicted on Screen in Their Films Are Not Predetermined Characters. They Express Human Problems in a Natural Way. That’s Why Their Films Are Fascinating. Sidney Lumet Is a Close Friend of Mine, and Whenever We Sit Down to Talk We Never Discuss Cinema. We Generally Discuss Trivial Matters, Social Problems or Our Hobbies, and We Quite Enjoy It. Reporters Always Ask Me What the Content of My Film Is and I Tell Them That There Is No Such a Thing. I Say Ordinary Things. a Film Is Not Supposed to Be a Lecture.

A Film Must Be Made with the Heart, Not the Mind. I Think Today’s Young Filmmakers Have Forgotten This and Instead They Make Films Through Their Calculations. That Is Why Japanese Films No Longer Have an Audience. in All Honesty, Films Must Be Made to Target the Hearts. During the Time of Yasujirō Ozu, My Mentor, and Also in My Time, No Filmmaker Made Films Based on Theory and Calculation, and That Was Why Japan’s Cinema Was Capable of Shaping Its Golden Years. Young Filmmakers Use Techniques to Humiliate the Audience. This Is Wrong. We Must Serve Cinema and Make a Film That Would Stimulate the Audience. Ultimately, the Aim Should Be to Make an Artistic Film. That’s Simple, Isn’t It?

In Japan, the Society Progressed Through a Rapid Growth, Which Was an Unnatural Process. Daily Life Lost Its Natural Course. to Live, It Became Necessary to Work Beyond One’s Abilities. That’s Why Instability Among People Has Increased.

In a Mad World, Only the Mad Are Sane.