Akira Kurosawa

“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.”

Jean Renoir

“A director makes only one movie in his life. Then he breaks it into pieces and makes it again.”

Werner Herzog

“It is my duty to direct because the films might be the inner chronicle of what we are, and we have to articulate ourselves. Otherwise we would be cows in the field.”

Ingmar Bergman

“Film as dream, film as music. No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.”

Vittorio De Sica

“I've lost all my money on these films. They are not commercial. But I'm glad to lose it this way. To have for a souvenir of my life pictures like Umberto D. and The Bicycle Thief.”

Robert Altman

“Filmmaking is a chance to live many lifetimes.”

Jim Jarmusch

“I always start with characters rather than with a plot, which many critics would say is very obvious from the lack of plot in my films - although I think they do have plots - but the plot is not of primary importance to me, the characters are. ”

Stanley Kubrick

“If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed.”

Yoshifumi Kondô

Isao Takahata

I liked Takahata’s very much, because every one of his films surprises me, I think he has lots of cheek. He is always low profile, but he is very daring. Changing the kind of story every time, changing style, message... (Michel Ocelot, Director)

Hayao Miyazaki

“Modern life is so thin and shallow and fake. I look forward to when developers go bankrupt, Japan gets poorer and wild grasses take over.”