Animators can only draw from their own experiences of pain and shock and emotions.

Currently computer graphics are used a great deal, but it can be excessive.

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

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

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

If [hand-drawn animation] is a dying craft, we can't do anything about it. Civilization moves on. Where are all the fresco painters now? Where are the landscape artists? What are they doing now? The world is changing. I have been very fortunate to be able to do the same job for 40 years. That's rare in any era.

We are not trying to solve the world's problems... However, even in the midst of hatred and killing, there are things worth living for. A wonderful encounter, or a thing of beauty can still exist.