Hayao Miyazaki is probably the most famous name in the anime industry. He’s known for being an innovator and a pioneer. It’s impossible to talk about him without talking about the impact he’s had on popularizing the art of Japanese animation overseas.
He’s the proud co-founder and face of Studio Ghibli — the only animation studio to consistently make movies that people actually crave watching. Miyazaki’s films have been around since the 1960s, but he didn’t get his big break until 1988, when My Neighbor Totoro was released. After that, it was just one hit after another. He helped spread anime culture globally, but he also crafted some truly incredible films like Spirited Away (which won an Oscar), Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, and Ponyo.
Fans of Japanese animation all over the world were saddened to learn of his retirement in 2014, but it seems his passion for writing unique stories couldn’t be silenced for too long. In 2017, he came out of retirement to work on a new movie, How Do You Live?, which still doesn’t have a confirmed release date.
But Miyazaki doesn’t just make movies; he’s an incredible storyteller, and interviews and behind-the-scenes reveal some significant insights on animation and his views on life and the world. And that’s why we’re here today: to share some of our favorite quotes from one of Japan’s greatest minds! The following are some of the best Hayao Miyazaki quotes that will inspire you to live your life with passion and purpose and let you get to know Miyazaki better.
#81
"Virtual reality is a denial of reality. We need to be open to the powers of imagination, which brings something useful to reality. Virtual reality can imprison people."
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#82
"There are so many ships in the animation sea that are computer driven, that I think we can have at least one that’s just a log raft that we can row by hand."
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#83
"I myself become terrified of death when I am in a negative state of mind. But the thought of death ceases to bother me once I become productive."
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#84
"When I say I get inspiration from my real life, I think of my real life as extending about 300 meters radius around me. So what I see in that area is what inspires me."
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#85
"I find it pointless sitting in my house not working, though I like to go on extended vacations from time to time."
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#86
"The principle I adhere to when directing is that I make good use of everything my staff creates. Even if they make foregrounds that don’t quite fit with my backgrounds, I never waste it and try to find the best use for it."
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#87
"I managed to work for more than 50 years with just paper, pencils and film. My son’s generation and the one coming up after can’t work with just paper and pencils anymore. I managed to avoid using a computer. I don’t even have a cellphone. I feel lucky I managed to live like that."
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#88
"I don’t intentionally make deep movies."
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#89
"Prizes do not mean anything to me. I think it is more important to make a child aware of the existence of a weird creature like a water spider that breathes through its backside."
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#90
"These days, there are angry ghosts all around us, dead from wars, sickness, starvation – and nobody cares. So you say you’re under a curse? Well, so what? So’s the whole damned world."
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#91
"Modern life is so thin and shallow and fake. I look forward to when developers go bankrupt, Japan gets poorer and wild grasses take over."
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#92
"To have a film where there's an evil figure and a good person fights against the evil figure and everything becomes a happy ending, that's one way to make a film. But then that means you have to draw, as an animator, the evil figure. And it's not very pleasant to draw evil figures."
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#93
"The future is clear. It’s going to fall apart. What’s the use in worrying? It’s inevitable."
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#94
"AI animation is an insult to life itself."
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#95
"It seems like everything that we see perceived in the brain before we actually use our own eyes, that everything we see is coming through computers or machines and then is being input in our brain cells. So that really worries me."
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#96
"The running of surging masses on fire with anger, the running of a child doing his best to hold back tears until he reaches his house, the running of a heroine who has forsaken everything but the desire to flee—being able to show wonderful ways of running, running that expresses the very act of living, the pulse of life, across the screen would give me enormous delight. I dream of someday coming across a work that requires that kind of running."
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#97
"Sometimes I test myself saying, 'If I get a death sentence if I don’t make this movie, would I still make this movie?'"
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#98
"From that rooftop, what if you leapt onto the next roof, dashed over to that blue and green wall, jumped and climbed up the pipe, ran across the roof, and jumped to the next? You can, in animation. When you look from above, so many things reveal themselves to you. Maybe race along the concrete wall. Isn’t it fun to see things that way?"
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#99
"Utopia exists only in one’s childhood life."
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#100
"People who design machines and airplanes {or buildings}, no matter how much they believe that what they do is good, the winds of time eventually turn them into tools of industrial civilization. They’re cursed dreams. Animation, too. Beautiful yet cursed dreams."
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