Araki Quotes & Sayings

Let the League of Nations say whatever it pleases, let America offer whatever interference, let China decry Japan's action at the top of her voice, but Japan must adhere to her course unswervingly. — Sadao Araki

What we have here, in these long stretches of dream-like times where time slows...regardless of man or woman, the most important thing may be living together at the same time. — Araki Joh

You just make the best movie you can and hope for the best, because you don't have any control over what happens with the movie, whether the movie is misinterpreted. — Gregg Araki

I could stay depressed about my bad memory, but that's a negative way to live. Let's look on the bright side and list the advantages of having a bad memory.
(1) You can reread a book and see a movie over and over and enjoy it as much as the first time.
(2) If you make an inconvenient promise, you can pretend that you forgot about it and still be forgiven.
(3) This is the most important thing: you can keep coming up with ideas without being held back by convictions or the past. — Hirohiko Araki

Now the opportunity to destroy the USSR has arrived. — Sadao Araki

Don't you think that it is necessary to have a sense of brutality in photography? — Nobuyoshi Araki

Only artists without talent try to shock people. — Nobuyoshi Araki

The camera itself, the photograph itself, calls up death. — Nobuyoshi Araki

In the act of love, as in photography, there is a form of life and a kind of slow death, — Nobuyoshi Araki

There is a camera is between a man and a woman. — Nobuyoshi Araki

If we have a thousand bamboo spears, there's nothing to worry about a war with the Soviet Union. — Sadao Araki

Art is all about doing what you shouldn't. — Nobuyoshi Araki

You are either born to be a photographer or not. The art of photography is not something you can learn in the classroom or by watching someone do it. — Nobuyoshi Araki

What sort of government is it that permits so many children to go to school hungry, without even a morsel of food in their stomachs? It cannot be! It must not be! — Sadao Araki

I only tie up woman's body because I know I cannot tie up her heart. Only her physical parts can be tied up. Tying up a woman becomes an embrace. — Nobuyoshi Araki

I try to make movies that I love and that I'm passionate about and that I'm proud of. — Gregg Araki

Frivolous thinking is due to foreign thought. Japan must no longer let the impudence of the white peoples go unpunished. It is the duty of Japan to fulfill her natural destiny, to cause China to respect the Japanese, to expel Chinese influence from Manchuria, and to follow the way of imperial destiny. — Sadao Araki

I would say my sex drive is weaker than most. However, my lens has a permanent erection. — Nobuyoshi Araki

I ask you to remember that the Japanese troops are a strictly disciplined force and perform their duties with as little harmfulness as possible. — Sadao Araki

What makes [photography] obscene is its terrible cruelty. Happiness may be fleeting, but it's the reason we go on living. Photography is the joy that precedes pain, the moment of life just before death. — Nobuyoshi Araki

Give me a Japanese division armed with bamboo spears and I'll wipe out the entire Russian Far Eastern Army. — Sadao Araki

It is Japan's mission to be supreme in Asia, the South Seas and eventually the four corners of the world. — Sadao Araki

My photos are my diary. Every photo is no more than the representation of a single day. And each day contains the past and the projection into the future. That's why I feel compelled to indicate the date on every picture I take. — Nobuyoshi Araki

A war minister is able to force the adoption of any measure desired by the Camp or to block any measure that meets his disapproval. — Sadao Araki

Every movie I've made is different, but it's because I'm different. I'm not the same person I was in 1992 or 1999 — Gregg Araki

Photography is about a single point of a moment. It's like stopping time. As everything gets condensed in that forced instant. But if you keep creating these points, they form a line which reflects your life. — Nobuyoshi Araki

The foundations of our Empire are now based more firmly than ever! The birth of a Crown Prince shows that the prosperity of the Imperial Household is increasing many times. — Sadao Araki

A photographer cannot be inexperienced, or too mature. A photographer ought to be half-ripe. — Nobuyoshi Araki

Women? Well, they are gods. They will always fascinate me. As for rope, I always have it with me. Even when I forget my film, the rope is always in my bag. Since I can't tie their hearts up, I tie their bodies up instead. — Nobuyoshi Araki

Unless you remove the weeds, a good crop will be ruined. — Sadao Araki

According to our belief, Japan was founded by the Sun Goddess Amaterasu Omikami, who is revered by the entire nation for her all-pervading virtue, and from whom our Imperial House is descended. — Sadao Araki

In order to have enough of the raw materials ... which will be lacking in wartime, we should plan to acquire and use foreign resources existing in our expected sphere of influence, such as Sakhalim, China, and the Southern Pacific. — Sadao Araki

Photographs are diary entries That's all they can be. Photographs are just documentations of a day's event. At the same time, they drag the past into the present and also continue into the future. A day's occurrence evokes both the past and the future. That's why I want to clearly date my pictures. It's actually frustrating, that's why I now photograph the future — Nobuyoshi Araki

The spirit of the Japanese nation is, by its nature, a thing that must be propagated over the seven seas and extended over the five continents. Anything that may hinder its progress must be abolished, even by force. — Sadao Araki

We have no hesitation in declaring that we are a military nation- in the cause of Kodo and the highest morality. — Sadao Araki

In appointing our Ambassador to the United States at this important time, with the 1936 crisis ahead, such considerations as dignity, past career, equity and sentiment must be discarded and a man of ability chosen in the interests of the country. In the light of these considerations, we find Hiroshi Saito, present Minister of Holland, the right person for the post. — Sadao Araki

It is now time for our nation to frustrate the wild dreams of the whites. — Sadao Araki

Photography has always been associated with death. Reality is colorful, yet early photography always took the color out of reality and made it black-and-white. Color is life; black-and-white is death. There was a ghost hidden in the invention of photography. — Nobuyoshi Araki