Oshima Quotes & Sayings

Why do I act as I do? To tell you the truth, I have absolutely no idea why. It is simply my nature to act as I act, and that's all I can say. — Raymond Smullyan

Hoshino found Oshima an appealing young man. Intelligent, well groomed, obviously from a good family. And quite kind. He's got to be gay, right? Not that Hoshino cared. To each his own, was his thinking. Some men talk with stones, and some men sleep with other men. — Haruki Murakami

To the leaders of the cinema still to come, I can offer only a few words drawn from my modest experience. You must ceaselessly formulate and sharpen your critical views, both of others and of yourselves. — Nagisa Oshima

I am a big admirer of Sachin and his personality. He is a source of inspiration for the country and just looking at his photographs gives a lot of positive vibes. — A.R. Rahman

Perhaps," Oshima says, as if fed up. "Perhaps most people in the world aren't trying to be free, Kafka. They just think they are. It's all an illusion. If they really were set free, most people would be in a real bind. You'd better remember that. People actually prefer not being free." "Including you?" "Yeah. I prefer being unfree, too. Up to a point. Jean-Jacques Rousseau defined civilization as when people build fences. A very perceptive observation. And it's true - all civilization is the product of a fenced-in lack of freedom. — Haruki Murakami

People need to cling to something," Oshima says. "They have to. You're doing the same, even though you don't realise it. — Haruki Murakami

We know what a masquerade all development is, and what effective shapes may be disguised in helpless embryos. - In fact, the world is full of hopeful analogies and handsome dubious eggs called possibilities. — George Eliot

There are days in retirement that are the waking equivalent of a dreamless sleep, if you know what I mean. — Robert Breault

Oshima's silent for a time as he gazes at the forest, eyes narrowed. Birds are flitting from one branch to the next. His hands are clasped behind his head. "I know how you feel," he finally says. "But this is something you have to work out on your own. Nobody can help you. That's what love's all about, Kafka. You're the one having those wonderful feelings, but you have to go it alone as you wander through the dark. Your mind and body have to bear it all. All by yourself. — Haruki Murakami

Oshima once used the term hollow men. Well, that's exactly what I've become. There's a void inside me, a blank that's slowly expanding, devouring what's left of who I am. I can hear it happening. I'm totally lost, my identity dying. There's no direction where I am, no sky, no ground. — Haruki Murakami

The concept of 'obscenity' is tested when one dares to look at something that he has an unbearable desire to see but has forbidden himself to look at. When one feels that everything that one had wanted to see has been revealed, 'obscenity' disappears, the taboo disappears as well, and there is a certain liberation. — Nagisa Oshima

That's something you'll have to decide for yourself.. I think you have a right to live however you want. Whether you're fifteen or fifty-one, what does it matter? But unfortunately society doesn't agree.
~Oshima, page 198 — Haruki Murakami

You don't know if she shares the same strong, pure feelings you have for her," Oshima comments. I shake my head. "It hurts to think about it. — Haruki Murakami

My hatred for Japanese cinema includes absolutely all of it. — Nagisa Oshima

The world of the grotesque is the darkness within us. Well before Freud and Jung shined a light on the workings of the subconscious, this correlation between darkness and our subconscious, these two forms of darkness, was obvious to people. It wasn't a metaphor, even. If you trace it back further, it wasn't even a correlation. Until Edison invented the electric light, most of the world was totally covered in darkness. The physical darkness outside and the inner darkness of the soul were mixed together, with no boundary separating the two. They were directly linked. Like this." Oshima brings his two hands together tightly. "But today things are different. The darkness in the outside world has vanished, but the darkness in our hearts remains, virtually unchanged. Just like an iceberg, what we label the ego or consciousness is, for the most part, sunk in darkness. And that estrangement sometimes creates a deep contradiction or confusion within us. — Haruki Murakami

Forces. What utter treachery!" Hitler then makes misleading statements about how he and Mussolini had agreed to defend Sicily. The Fuehrer also offers a backhanded apology to the Japanese for allowing a large amount of the Italian Navy to fall into Allied hands. However, it is Hitler's current plan for the defense of Italy that interests Washington. Oshima quotes him on this as saying: "[The Allies] have two courses: either they will go north in Italy or they will try to land in the Balkans. I am inclined to believe they will take the latter course. I — Bruce Lee

I do not like to be called a samurai, but I admit that I have an image of myself as a fighter. I would like to fight against all authorities and powers. — Nagisa Oshima

Do you think music has the power to change people? Like you listen to a piece and go through some major change inside?"
Oshima nodded."Sure, that can happen. We have an experience - like a chemical reaction - that transforms something inside us. When we examine ourselves later on, we discover that all the standards we've lived by have shot up another notch and the world's opened up in unexpected ways. Yes, I've had that experience. Not often, but it has happened. It's like falling in love. — Haruki Murakami

Posterity! Why should people be less stupid tomorrow than they are today? — Jules Renard

But people need to cling to something," Oshima says. "They have to. You're doing the same, even though you don't realize it. It's like Goethe said: Everything's a metaphor. — Haruki Murakami

Her skin retained a faint warmth, but it was already fading away. — Haruki Murakami

like anyone bringing up the past." "What's the name of the song?" "'Kafka on the Shore.'" Oshima says. "'Kafka on the Shore'?" "That's correct, Kafka Tamura. — Haruki Murakami

Nothing that is expressed is obscene. What is obscene is what is hidden. — Nagisa Oshima