Carl Rinsch has a good balance between the visual and the drama and action, so I thought if he's going to direct, we can make a new, epic film. My fear was gone when I met him.

None of us knows how long he shall live or when his time will come. But soon, all that will be left of our brief lives is the pride our children feel when they speak our names.

I've been wearing kimono for several years, and armor.

It's a Samurai story [47 ronin], so if we change too much Japanese audiences will have strong against feelings to the film. It's not good.

A lot of country making films in English, but in Japan we are very shy to speak English.

It's very difficult to introduce the world to our culture.

I believe, the Japanese film industry must be open.

I saw a lot of 47 Ronin on the TV, in the films, and I've done Chushingura Gaiden Yotsuya Kaidan [Crest of Betrayal, 1994] directed by Kinji Fukasaku.

I was a child actor, so when I started filming when I was five years old, it was a long time ago.

This is almost the most famous story The last samurai - Samurai story - in Japan.

I've done Last Samurai in Japan, in LA, in New Zealand. Even in Japan it is very hard to shoot, because there's been so many changes. Only around a temple can we shoot.

The body is never more alive than when it is dead; but it is alive in its units, and dead in its totality; alive as a congeries, dead as an organism.

I never talk about auditions. Even if I've got the role, I won't tell people until we're literally filming it.

I don't make movies thinking: 'Oh, this is going to be a huge box-office hit.'

Like baseball, food will never go out of style; we will always need to eat and we will always find it entertaining. I think of food TV this way - all the fun and none of the calories.

Leave the dishes unwashed and the demands on your time unanswered. Be ruthless and refuse to do what people ask of you.

I think there's a racial outcome to a lot of what goes in America, but I don't think race is always the reason.

In all aspects of life, it's always much funner when you surround yourself with people you enjoy being around.

We can all be beautiful girls.

Writing poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.

The art of art... is simplicity.