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.

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.

Stop your dreams from being dreams by turning them into reality.

Healing restores to wholeness that which has been injured or fragmented.

It is not the prisoners who need reformation it is the prisons.

An accurate knowledge of the past of a country is necessary for everyone who would understand its present, and who desires to judge of its future.

Being a winner is never an accident; winning comes about by design, determination and positive action.

The 4th of July combines the two things Americans love most in one day: alcohol and explosives.

Don't get caught up in how many hours you work. Judge success based on having goals and measuring your results. Hard work, and lots of it, is certainly needed, but focus on what you get done.

Grudges seldom hurt anyone except the one bearing them.

Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong.

Words can make the illness a subject I can master, and not one that one simply emotes over.