Akira Kurosawa Quotes

On this page you can find the TOP of Akira Kurosawa's best quotes! We hope you will find some sayings from Film director Akira Kurosawa's in our collection, which will inspire you to new achievements! There are currently 40 quotes on this page collected since March 23, 1910! Share our collection of quotes with your friends on social media so that they can find something to inspire them!
All quotes by Akira Kurosawa: Character Film Reality Writing more...
  • 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.

  • 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 (2011). “Something Like An Autobiography”, p.159, Vintage
  • In a mad world only the mad are sane.

    "Fictional character: Kyoami". "Ran", www.imdb.com. 1985.
  • 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.

    Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.
  • 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.

    Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.
  • To be an artist means to search, to find and look at these realities. To be an artist means to never look away.

  • 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.

    Believe  
    "Something Like An Autobiography".
  • 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 (2011). “Something Like An Autobiography”, p.83, Vintage
  • Take me, subtract movies, and you get zero.

  • The great appeal of film is its relatability.

  • Man is a genius when he is dreaming.

  • 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.

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

  • 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.

    Real   Believe   Hero  
    Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.
  • If you want to be a great director, be a great screenwriter.

  • 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.

    Akira Kurosawa, Donald Richie (1987). “Rashomon”, p.122, Rutgers University Press
  • 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 (2011). “Something Like An Autobiography”, p.11, Vintage
  • Human beings share the same common problems. A film can only be understood if it depicts these properly.

    Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.
  • With a good script a good director can produce a masterpiece; with the same script a mediocre director can make 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. That is what makes a real movie. The script must be something that has the power to do this.

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

  • 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.

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

    Akira Kurosawa, Bert Cardullo (2008). “Akira Kurosawa: Interviews”, p.181, Univ. Press of Mississippi
  • I can't afford to hate anyone. I don't have that kind of time.

    "Fictional character: Kanji Watanabe". "Ikiru", www.imdb.com. 1952.
  • It is the power of memory that gives rise to the power of imagination.

    Akira Kurosawa (2011). “Something Like An Autobiography”, p.30, Vintage
  • 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.

    Believe  
  • 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 (2011). “Something Like An Autobiography”, p.192, Vintage
  • 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 (2011). “Something Like An Autobiography”, p.177, Vintage
  • 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, Donald Richie (1987). “Rashomon”, p.18, Rutgers University Press
  • The truth is in the mystery.

  • 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, Bert Cardullo (2008). “Akira Kurosawa: Interviews”, p.71, Univ. Press of Mississippi
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  • We hope you have found the saying you were looking for in our collection! At the moment, we have collected 40 quotes from the Film director Akira Kurosawa, starting from March 23, 1910! We periodically replenish our collection so that visitors of our website can always find inspirational quotes by authors from all over the world! Come back to us again!
    Akira Kurosawa quotes about: Character Film Reality Writing

    Akira Kurosawa

    • Born: March 23, 1910
    • Died: September 6, 1998
    • Occupation: Film director