Takashi Quotes & Sayings

I'm very sad to be compared with Warhol and The Factory, because I have no drugs, you know. We have no drug culture in Japan! Maybe it's because our attitude toward labor is totally different. — Takashi Murakami

It's not really important to make skillful movies. I think expressing yourself really well, skill-wise, is not as important. I want it to be sort of raw and rough but new and fun to watch. — Takashi Miike

His (Lloyd Kaufman) string of low-budget, lowbrow horror comedies stretching back to the '80s has been cited as influence by Peter Jackson, the Farrelly Brothers, Quentin Tarantino, Takashi Miike, and Guillermo Del Toro, just to cite a few prominent examples. — Lou Lumenick

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. — Takashi Miike

Looking back on it now, I'd say one's thirties are a cruel age. At this point, I think of them as a time I whiled away unaware of the tide that can suddenly pull you out, beyond the shallows, into the sea of hardship, and even death. — Takashi Hiraide

Having played to her heart's content, Chibi would come inside and rest for a while. When she began to sleep on the sofa
like a talisman curled gently in the shape of a comma and dug up from a prehistoric archaeological site
a deep sense of happiness arrived, as if the house itself had dreamed this scene. — Takashi Hiraide

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. — Takashi Miike

I always have stress. — Takashi Murakami

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. — Takashi Miike

I'm always very interested in breeding. Raising cacti is breeding. My lotus plant collection is breeding. The insects are breeding. — Takashi Murakami

Even my pathological love of Japan and its beauties, glories and eccentricities is sorely tested by 'The Grudge 2,' from Takashi Shimizu, a movie so bewildering and impenetrable that I believe it siphoned off a good 40 IQ points. — Stephen Hunter

New York City is still the art capital - every time I'm in New York, I'm thinking about competition. — Takashi Murakami

The original Shiro-sama failed, of course, and was ordered by the emperor to commit ritual suicide in his temple in the mountains. He did, and his followers cremated his body and put his bones in a sacred urn to be guarded until the time he was reborn."
"And that's the Hayashi Urn?" she said. "A funeral jar? And I kept my cookies in
it? — Anne Stuart

He had no choice in the matter, if he left her hanging by the straps she'd end up being banged against the side of the aircraft. Not good for her, not good for the plane's stability. You always fastened down a cargo, you didn't leave it loose in the back of a plane.
That was all he was doing, he told himself putting his arms around her to hold her limp body still, letting her head loll back against his shoulder. Keeping the cargo secure.
It was his own damn fault he was getting hard again. — Anne Stuart

You can't really change somebody completely, deep inside your nature. But I think what I did was admit to myself what kind of a person I was, and sort of get into the idea that that's who I was. And I think preserving that part of myself really helps me make movies. — Takashi Miike

He was accustomed to women wanting him. What shocked him was the simple fact that he wanted her.
Not hot, energetic sex. Not a blow job from a novice. He wanted her with a
perplexing intensity he hadn't felt in years. He was the King of Death, and she was his consort.
And no amount of common sense could distract him. — Anne Stuart

I've been making movies for a long time. The Japanese way of making movies has become second nature to me. To get away from that, I really try to surround myself with younger staff and approach making movies not like a veteran of the industry but always as a beginner and a rookie. — Takashi Miike

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. — Takashi Miike

People say that Nagasaki is famous for persecution and devastation, for it has known much in it's history. But Nagasaki is not the only place that has experienced both persecution and destruction The reason Nagasaki is famous, is because it is rebuilt, because it has always survived. — Takashi Nagai

I feel like creating things without getting too hung up on little details, and paying more attention to the importance to the concept itself, is the way to move forward. — Takashi Tokita

Unless you have suffered and wept, you really don't understand what compassion is, nor can you give comfort to someone who is suffering. If you haven't cried, you can't dry another's eyes. Unless you've walked in darkness, you can't help wanderers find the way. Unless you've looked into the eyes of menacing death and felt its hot breath, you can't help another rise from the dead and taste anew the joy of being alive. — Takashi Nagai

The concept of minimalism is to relax. Like a Zen monk in training, it is something that brings equilibrium to the heart. I don't necessarily think it has any problems, but if I were to force myself to name one, I would say that since the minimalist feeling already includes its own universe, I think it might kill the drive that we would otherwise have to commit the physically impossible and attempt to travel into outer space. — Takashi Murakami

Galleries in the West have probably been looking for exoticism. That's the reason my paintings initially sold well, I think. And then once they started selling, people said my works were very detailed. They may have represented something Japanese to them. — Takashi Murakami

I knew you'd be wet," he whispered, and gave in to temptation, biting her ear.
She quivered. "Now I want you to spread your legs for me. Just a little bit. That's right," he crooned in her ear. "That's perfect. You're perfect. Beautiful." He kissed the side of her neck, because he couldn't help it. He wanted his fingers inside her, wanted his cock inside her, but he couldn't have what he wanted. If he turned her, yanked off her pants and pushed her down on the floor he wouldn't stop, and this had to be for her and her alone. — Anne Stuart

The cat's manner of rejection was like cold, white light. — Takashi Hiraide

I can't single out one thing that influenced me. My generation was influenced greatly by the manga that came out during our childhood. — Takashi Miike

He imagined fate as a goddess, capricious and fickle, or as a river, which could flood at any moment — Takashi Hiraide

Manga uses Japanese traditional structures in how to teach the student and to transmit a very direct message. You learn from the teacher by watching from behind his back. The whole teacher-master thing is part of Asian culture, I think. — Takashi Murakami

Our lives are of great worth if we accept with good grace the situation Providence places us in, and go on living lovingly. — Takashi Nagai

In Japan, violence isn't as controversial as it is in the West. Pornography is more restricted, but it's not hard to make a crazy, extremely violent film. — Takashi Miike

I'm happy that my films were discovered by chance by foreign film festivals. That makes me realise more that there is a world outside Japan too. For me, it's an occasion to meet many people and to experience directly the response of international audiences to my films. But for me as a director, my attitude towards making films hasn't changed with the fame. I feel it's not good to change as a person anyway — Takashi Miike

My parents came from the Kyushu Island in the Southern part of Japan to find work in Tokyo. So we could only afford to live downtown, in a low-income area. It was just by the river, and whenever a typhoon came around, we were under water up to, like, here. That's the kind of place we lived in. — Takashi Murakami

I'm not a big fan of violent movies, it's not something I like to watch. And it's not my aim or goal to make a violent movie. My characters are very important, so when I'm trying to depict a certain character in my movie, if my character is violent, it will be expressed that way in the film. You cannot really deny what a character is about. To repeat, my movie end up becoming violent, but I don't start with the intent of making violent movies. — Takashi Miike

I actually feel like the phrase 'big in Japan' is not appropriate for me. The reason is that there are more people who sympathize with my practice in America than there are domestically in Japan. — Takashi Murakami

Japanese people accept that art and commerce will be blended; and, in fact, they are surprised by the rigid and pretentious Western hierarchy of 'high art.' — Takashi Murakami

And when the moment came, even then Genji would be fortunate. He would die without fear, drenched in his own heart's blood, in the embrace of a beautiful woman, and she would weep for him.

What samurai could hope for more? — Takashi Matsuoka

The noble-minded do not thrust others aside in order to make their way in the world. But then they themselves are ultimately thrust aside by the advancing tide. — Takashi Hiraide

I go to the dentist, not a shrink. — Takashi Miike

I'm always looking for ways to connect myself with American people and that American feeling. I'm trying to pick up on the feeling of places, like the Los Angeles feeling or the New York feeling ... Los Angeles is much better for me that way. — Takashi Murakami

Men and women of the world, never again plan war! With this atomic bomb, war can only mean suicide for the human race. From this atomic waste the people of Nagasaki confront the world and cry out: No more war! Let us follow the commandment of love and work together. The people of Nagasaki prostrate themselves before God and pray: Grant that Nagasaki may be the last atomic wilderness in the history of the world. — Takashi Nagai

My aesthetic sense was formed at a young age by what surrounded me: the narrow residential spaces of Japan and the mental escapes from those spaces that took the forms of manga and anime. — Takashi Murakami

When you're dealing with Hollywood people, it creates a tight, tense atmosphere through the whole thing. And I don't like to work in that kind of atmosphere. I like to make my movies in a kind of relaxed atmosphere. — Takashi Miike

Everyone has complexes about their body or their ability and skills and dream of a rebirth into something different. I myself have always had that secret desire to become something completely different and enact revenge on certain things. So I do that through my movies. My desires become reality in the movie because it can't become real in real life. — Takashi Miike

I've been immersed in manga since I was a kid. I grew up with this culture. So I started to think about how to compare manga to contemporary art. — Takashi Murakami

There's a photographer who says cat lovers always believe their own cat is better looking than anyone else's. According to her, they've all got blinders on. — Takashi Hiraide

[Takashi] Murakami, do you think he is spiritual? He is more like de-spiritualized. De-spiritualized might be the most contemporary aspect of the human mind. — Hiroshi Sugimoto

Summer Hawthorne was simply more trouble than she was worth. At least as far as anyone with any sense would realize.
Unfortunately, Taka's common sense seemed to have deserted him in the last few days. — Anne Stuart

Nissan asked him to make an estimate of what it would cost to run the plant. When he finished it, he typed it up, signed it, and - according to the procedure he had been taught at Ford - brought it to his new boss, Takashi Ishihara, president of Nissan, to sign. Ishihara seemed surprised when he looked at it, and said nothing. A few days later he brought it back to Runyon with his signature at the bottom. "Frame this," he said, "because it is the last piece of paper I will sign for you." Runyon looked puzzled. "We searched very carefully for the man to run our factory," Ishihara continued, "and we picked you, and you are our man and we trust you. We don't have to sign papers anymore. From now on it is just yes or no with us. — David Halberstam

Takashi had no choice, and he'd always known it. This was one reason he'd tried
so hard not to care about anyone, one reason why he'd known immediately just how dangerous Summer Hawthorne could be. Because now she was the one he couldn't sacrifice, couldn't walk away from, no matter how high the stakes. He could die for what he believed in. He just couldn't let her die as well. — Anne Stuart

Rather than a big figure, I guess you could say I'm more of an influential minority symbol. — Takashi Murakami

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. — Takashi Miike

I'm supposed to trust you?"
"No," he said. He picked up the phone. "Put her sister on." A second later he
handed the small silver device to her.
Summer felt a second of panic - after all, this tiny piece of metal and circuitry
unlocked doors, turned off death traps and blew up houses. God knows what would
happen if she pushed the wrong button. — Anne Stuart

I would like to live to 120, because conceptually, people can survive to 120. Every 20 years, it changes. So maybe, in the next 20 years people can go to space. I don't know what the next revolution will be. I want to watch. — Takashi Murakami

We want to see the newest things. That is because we want to see the future, even if only momentarily. It is the moment in which, even if we don't completely understand what we have glimpsed, we are nonetheless touched by it. This is what we have come to call art. — Takashi Murakami

The word "to grieve" or "lament" in Japanese is actually made up of two different kanji characters - "sadness" and "resentment. — Takashi Hiraide

I don't think about the audience, I don't think about what makes them happy, because there's no way for me to know. To try to think of what makes for entertainment is a very Japanese thing. The people who think like this are old-fashioned. They think of the audience as a mass, but in fact every person in the audience is different. So entertainment for everyone doesn't exist — Takashi Miike

In terms of making TV drama, not everything has to make sense. In cinema, you usually strive for reality and a natural environment, but in TV, it's more acceptable to do something crazy and break with naturalism. — Takashi Miike

By late autumn the yard would grow thick with fallen leaves, causing the landlady to heave many deep sighs. — Takashi Hiraide

I believe that when people try to live their life at the fullest, there's a certain laughter that comes out of it. The more they try to live their life seriously, the funnier it is. It happens all the time in our real life. — Takashi Miike

There are a few cat lovers among my close friends, and I have to admit that there have been moments when that look of excessive sweet affection oozing from around their eyes has left me feeling absolutely disgusted. Having devoted themselves to cats, body and soul, they seem at times utterly indifferent to shame. — Takashi Hiraide

Chibi was a jewel of a cat. — Takashi Hiraide

I believe that every director's films reflect their lifestyle. — Takashi Miike

Bigger-budgeted films have more restrictions and less freedom to create. Because of this, I try to find freedom in the people I work with. I often work in ways I don't want to. It's more about controlling the situation. Lower-budget films are freer. — Takashi Miike

The reason I like incorporating the Yakuza into my movies - all their actions, everything they do, you can say 'It's ok because he's a Yakuza'. Changes happen very quickly in their world. If you were trying to make a movie about politicians, it would takes years and years for something to change; whereas for Yakuzas, it could only take one night and things can change dramatically. — Takashi Miike

I try to take interest in whatever comes my way. Another aspect of this is [that] if at the beginning it seems like something I don't want to do, I ask myself why I don't want to do this and why I feel this way. It's perhaps rooted in the fact that I'm trying to avoid something. — Takashi Miike

Chibi is a friend with whom I share an understanding, and who just happens to have taken on the form of a cat — Takashi Hiraide

Like many other kids, I liked watching anime. — Takashi Murakami

Then she told me about a philosopher who said that observation is at its core an expression of love which doesn't get caught up in sentiment. — Takashi Hiraide

Every medium has its own kind of freedom. I don't want to just cross from one to the next. I want to enjoy the freedom each one has. Sometimes, you can do something for TV that you can't do in the cinema. — Takashi Miike

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. — Takashi Miike

Dawn couldn't come soon enough. He had to get her out of his life as quickly as
possible. It was becoming the most important thing - more important than breathing, living. He needed to get away from her, fast. Because he didn't want to let her go. — Anne Stuart

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. — Takashi Miike

I wonder where it all comes from--this need to go to the place where the body has been laid to rest. It's the need to reconfirm how precious someone was and how irreplaceable, and the desire to reconnect with them on a different plane. — Takashi Hiraide

In Japan, I am famous in certain special circles - mainly as someone who is trying to break down and enlighten the conventions of Japanese art. — Takashi Murakami

Unfortunately, it's not that it's not impossible for us to develop Final Fantasy 7 for mobile. It's that currently, space will be an issue. Phones won't be able to contain the space it takes. It's over a gigabyte. People are probably going to have to wait a few years. — Takashi Tokita

The way I formed my studio and how I organize things actually came out of the model of the Japanese animation studio and the manga industry. The manga industry is gigantic in Japan. — Takashi Murakami

On the times when I used to make movies that were with a lower budget, nobody was expecting it to be a hit, and nobody was paying attention to what I was doing, and it was a free type of creative process. So, one way to reset myself is to go back to that kind of moviemaking. — Takashi Miike

I don't make rules myself. I didn't study enough to be able to make them. I'm too stupid. I spend my whole life making movies, so I have to enjoy it. Even at times when we had a very tight and difficult schedule, it was always enjoyable. Of course I wonder if the film will be successful afterwards. It's wonderful if a film becomes successful as a result of the enjoyment that we had — Takashi Miike

Contemporary art and manga - what is the same about them? Nothing, right? The manga industry has a lot of talented people, but contemporary art works on more of a solitary model. No one embarks on collaboration in contemporary art in order to make money. But in the manga world, everyone is invested in collaboration. The most important point is that the manga industry constantly encourages new creations and creators. — Takashi Murakami

I don't mind ratings boards. As a viewer, you have the right not to see a film. — Takashi Miike

When you try to be true to the script, changes occur. A script is there to show us a certain direction. But when you actually have the actors in and you start shooting the movie, you have the actor say a line and it doesn't sound right so you change it and make it different. It's the script that gives birth to these changes and the more you try to stay true to the script, the more that happens. — Takashi Miike

When I was little, I guess I was just an ordinary kid. But then things changed when I was in junior high. You know, kids that become geeks become one because of something. Like, they aren't good at sports, or girls don't like them. I, too, for some reason, got into things like science fiction and, well, especially science fiction as an escape. — Takashi Murakami

Hunny: So Hikaru is being Mr. Blind ... while Tama obviously likes Haru, but he's too foolish to know it. Right, Takashi?
Mori: Probably ...
Hunny: And then there's Kaoru and Kyoya. One of them is also unaware of his feelings. Do you think there'll be any progress before we graduate?
Mori: I don't know ... — Bisco Hatori

In Japan, I focus mostly on sending messages through Twitter, trying to spread my minority way of thinking. — Takashi Murakami

Betrayal was the name of the game - to get what he'd have, to use every weapon in his arsenal — Anne Stuart

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. — Takashi Miike

My wife gazed back. Then she thought of how they would soon have to part, and all the conflicted feelings came rushing in. "After all, she isn't really ours... But maybe I wish she really were...". Chibi stared intently with her deep green eyes at the clear liquid flowing from my wife's eyes and rolling down her cheeks - these human things called tears. — Takashi Hiraide

At some moments, you feel attracted to someone of the same sex, even if it's not sexual. You just want to be like him. — Takashi Miike