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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Akira Kurosawa expresses his admiration for Dostoevsky's work and its profound honesty about human existence.
In this quote, Akira Kurosawa reflects on his passion for Russian literature, particularly the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky, and how deeply he resonates with Dostoevsky’s depiction of human existence. Kurosawa notes that among all his films, the one inspired by Dostoevsky attracted the most attention, indicating the lasting impact of literature on film and the universality of the themes covered in Dostoevsky’s writings, such as morality, suffering, and the complexity of human nature.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a film studies class discussing the relationship between literature and cinema.
More from Akira Kurosawa
All quotes →For me, filmmaking combines everything. That's the reason I've made cinema my life's work. In films, painting and literature, theatre and music come together. But a film is still a film.
A truly good movie is enjoyable too. There’s nothing complicated about it.
The role of the artist is to not look away.
but ignorance is a kind of insanity in the human animal. People who delight in torturing defenseless children or tiny creatures are in reality insane. The terrible thing is that people who are madmen in private may wear a totally bland and innocent expression in public.
The root of any film project for me is this inner need to express something. What nurtures this root and makes it grow into a tree is the script. What makes the tree bear flowers and fruit is the directing.
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But the artist persists because he has the will to create, and this is the magic power which can transform and transfigure and transpose and which will ultimately be transmitted to others.
The music we play has to be tomorrow's, the things we say have to be today, and the reason for bothering is yesterday.
But I still rap like I'm on my Pharoahe Monch grind.
You can take things that Jimi Hendrix took, from Curtis Mayfield or from Buddy Guy for example, because we are all children of everything, even Picasso. But if you want to stand out, you have to learn to crystallize your existence and create your own fingerprints.
I always joked with my parents. I told them, 'If I don't make it as an actor, my fallback is musician.'
I was real good at music and real bad at everything else.