Hayao Miyazaki quotes

Hayao Miyazaki is a renowned Japanese animator, director, and co-founder of Studio Ghibli. His imaginative films blend fantasy, adventure, and deeply human themes, enchanting audiences of all ages worldwide. He has shaped the world of animation with works such as "Spirited Away," "My Neighbor Totoro," and "Princess Mononoke." Here are 59 of his quotes:

The creation of a single world comes from a huge number of fragments and chaos.

Hayao Miyazaki

We live in an age when it is cheaper to buy the rights to movies than to make them.

Hayao Miyazaki

Actually I think CGI has the potential to equal or even surpass what the human hand can do.

Hayao Miyazaki

Those are shrines. Some people believe spirits live in them.

Hayao Miyazaki

If it is a dying craft we can't do anything about it. Civilisation 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.

Hayao Miyazaki

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

Hayao Miyazaki

Children understand intuitively that the world they have been born into is not a blessed world.

Hayao Miyazaki

I believe that children's souls are the inheritors of historical memory from previous generations. It's just that as they grow older and experience the everyday world that memory sinks lower and lower. I feel I need to make a film that reaches down to that level. If I could do that I would die happy.

Hayao Miyazaki

Is someone different at age 18 or 60? I believe one stays the same.

Hayao Miyazaki

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

Hayao Miyazaki

I'm not going to make movies that tell children, "You should despair and run away".

Hayao Miyazaki

Once you have met someone, you never really forget them.

Hayao Miyazaki

Most people depend on the internet and cellphones to survive, but what happens when they stop working? I wanted to create a mother and child who wouldn't be defeated by life without them.

Hayao Miyazaki

Chihiro, huh? Her real name's Chihiro? Can't beat the power of love.

Hayao Miyazaki

Always believe in yourself. Do this and no matter where you are, you will have nothing to fear.

Hayao Miyazaki

You must see with eyes unclouded by hate. See the good in that which is evil, and the evil in that which is good. Pledge yourself to neither side, but vow instead to preserve the balance that exists between the two.

Hayao Miyazaki

I do believe in the power of story. I believe that stories have an important role to play in the formation of human beings, that they can stimulate, amaze and inspire their listeners.

Hayao Miyazaki

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

Hayao Miyazaki

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

Hayao Miyazaki

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.

Hayao Miyazaki

I think 2-D animation disappeared from Disney because they made so many uninteresting films. They became very conservative in the way they created them. It's too bad. I thought 2-D and 3-D could coexist happily.

Hayao Miyazaki

I do all my work by storyboard, so as I draw the storyboard, the world gets more and more complex, and as a result, my North, South, East, West directions kind of shift and go off base, but it seems like my staff as well as the audience, doesn't quite realize that this has happened. Don't tell them about it.

Hayao Miyazaki