Hayao Miyazaki Quotes

“I would like to make a film to tell children "it's good to be alive".”

“The creation of a single world comes from a huge number of fragments and chaos.”

“Life is a winking light in the darkness.”

“Most people depend on the internet and cellphones to survive, but what happens when they stop working? I wanted to create a mother and child who wouldn't be defeated by life without them.”

“But remember this, Japanese boy… airplanes are not tools for war. They are not for making money. Airplanes are beautiful dreams. Engineers turn dreams into reality.”

“Yet, even amidst the hatred and carnage, life is still worth living. It is possible for wonderful encounters and beautiful things to exist.”

“You see, whether you can draw like this or not, being able to think up this kind of design, it depends on whether or not you can say to yourself, 'Oh, yeah, girls like this exist in real life.' If you don’t spend time watching real people, you can’t do this, because you’ve never seen it. Some people spend their lives interested only in themselves. Almost all Japanese animation is produced with hardly any basis taken from observing real people, you know. It’s produced by humans who can’t stand looking at other humans. And that’s why the industry is full of otaku!”

“Children understand intuitively that the world they have been born into is not a blessed world.”

“I believe that children's souls are the inheritors of historical memory from previous generations. It's just that as they grow older and experience the everyday world that memory sinks lower and lower. I feel I need to make a film that reaches down to that level. If I could do that I would die happy.”

“In this world of ours, the sparrow must live like a hawk if he is to fly at all.”

“Cut off a wolf's head and it still has the power to bite.”

“Is someone different at age 18 or 60? I believe one stays the same.”

“Always believe in yourself. Do this and no matter where you are, you will have nothing to fear.”

“I think 2-D animation disappeared from Disney because they made so many uninteresting films. They became very conservative in the way they created them. It's too bad. I thought 2-D and 3-D could coexist happily.”

“The villains are all parts of me. For years I've been wondering what it would be like if all those negative elements were forced onto the main character's side. I can understand a character with that kind of anger.”

“I do believe in the power of story. I believe that stories have an important role to play in the formation of human beings, that they can stimulate, amaze and inspire their listeners.”

“We live in an age when it is cheaper to buy the rights to movies than to make them.”

“The greatness of a mind is determined by the depth of its suffering.”

“You may not like what's happening, but just accept it, and let's try to live together. Even if you feel angry, let's be patient and endure, let's try to live together. I've realized that this is the only way forward.”

“Once you have met someone, you never really forget them.”

“My process is thinking, thinking and thinking - thinking about my stories for a long time.”

“Producing an animation series merely to fill time slots in the broadcast schedule is like generating cultural pollution.”

“You must see with eyes unclouded by hate. See the good in that which is evil, and the evil in that which is good. Pledge yourself to neither side, but vow instead to preserve the balance that exists between the two.”

“We depict hatred, but it is to depict that there are more important things. We depict a curse, to depict the joy of liberation.”

“I'm not going to make movies that tell children, "You should despair and run away".”

“Chihiro, huh? Her real name's Chihiro? Can't beat the power of love.”

“See the good in that which is evil, and the evil in that which is good.”

“Those are shrines. Some people believe spirits live in them.”

“Actually I think CGI has the potential to equal or even surpass what the human hand can do.”

“It's difficult. [My female protagonists] immediately become the subjects of rorikon gokko (play toy for Lolita Complex males). In a sense, if we want to depict someone who is affirmative to us, we have no choice but to make them as lovely as possible. But now, there are too many people who shamelessly depict [such protagonists] as if they just want [such girls] as pets, and things are escalating more and more.”