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.

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 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.

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.

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.

I think that for the coward every day carries a kind of death.

The dog, on the other hand, has few or no ideas because his brain acts in coarse fashion and because there are few connections with each single process.

I'm glad He had the never while staring into space, to give this universe a time and place.

As a leader, you build trust when you give yourself 100%, so that people understand with your every action, you stand for them.

I would never tell anybody to get a divorce.

For me, a good holiday is about value for money rather than things to see.

The term "intellectual" is used conventionally to refer to people who happen to have unusual opportunities in this regard, and as always, opportunity confers moral responsibility.

The one place you don't want to wear shorts is any major awards show. You can wear them to the Teen Choice or Kids' Choice awards, but not the Oscars or the Emmys.

I think of the Dalai Lama as a doctor of the mind offering medicine and specific counsel and cures in the way a great doctor would.

I look at the NBA as a football game without the helmet.