Man is a genius when he dreams. Dream what you are capable of. The harder you dream it, the sooner it will come true.

If you look at everything straight on, there is nothing to be afraid of.

It is the power of memory that gives rise to the power of imagination.

I like unformed characters. This may be because, no matter how old I get, I am still unformed myself.

I can't afford to hate anyone. I don't have that kind of time.

Of all my films, people wrote to me most about this one... ...I had wanted to make The Idiot long before Rashomon. Since I was little I've liked Russian literature, but I find that I like Dostoevsky the best and had long thought that this book would make a wonderful film. He is still my favourite author, and he is the one - I still think - who writes most honestly about human existence.

I have no idea who the characters are, later, their personalities take over anything I might want to do. I end up writing not from my own will, but from theirs-they come alive as I write and make me do things that I couldn't have planned.