And if I'm running away from something, I try to make myself face it and overcome that initial fear. As a director, I don't think it's possible to make a movie that you really don't want to make.

When you are completely satisfied with what you have made, you're pretty much done as a director. So when that happens, that'll sort of be the end.

For me, trying to expand the energy to make one movie in Hollywood would be the equivalent in terms of energy to making 10 movies in Japan.

Filmmaking is not a balancing act, although some directors think it is. I don't believe in it. I like ups and downs. They're the best way to translate my feelings to the screen.

You can't really make something or make a movie and feel all through the process that it's a painful thing. It's not possible to do that.

I can't single out one thing that influenced me. My generation was influenced greatly by the manga that came out during our childhood.

I believe that every director's films reflect their lifestyle.

I don't know if I would call it therapy, but filmmaking is really the only thing I know how to do. For me, making movies is a way to bring on change for myself, and I really enjoy that part.

I go to the dentist, not a shrink.

As a filmmaker, you've got to have a nose for what's going on culturally. You have to feel it. It doesn't have to be manga or music, but you need some kind of antenna. That's very important.

If you're trying to be realistic and bring real life to the screen, you are going to have different elements. That's what I'm trying to do. As I make the movie, different elements come in naturally.

The best lies were always mixed with truth.

Indeed, the future is signalled in the past, but time has to pass to see it. Art is the witness.BLOG post-Perpetual Beginning-November 14 2011

Our common humanity can bridge any prior expanse of disagreement between us.

As long as a self is driven by an id to a Thou, it is not a matter of love, either. In love the self is not driven by the id, but rather the self chooses the Thou.

You're not going to die, " I told her, lifting my head to look at her. "I'm not done writing songs about you yet.

The Christmas memories you make this year will be the ones you remember in the years to come.

Hating a main character for being too weak is like expecting a human to be able to do everything. Stories aren't all sunshine and rainbows.

At home they thought of white people as a vague but powerful entity--like the forces that control the weather, that capable of destruction, that hidden from view.

How can the reality of 600 million Chinese be ignored?