In A Mad World Only

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.

Something That You Should Take Particular Notice Of Is The Fact That The Best Scripts Have Very Few Explanatory Passages. Adding Explanation To The Descriptive Passages Of A Screenplay Is The Most Dangerous Trap You Can Fall Into. It’s Easy To Explain The Psychological State Of A Character At A Particular Moment, But It’s Very Difficult To Describe It Through The Delicate Nuances Of Action And Dialogue. Yet It Is Not Impossible.

I Suppose All Of My Films Have A Common Theme. If I Think About It, Though, The Only Theme I Can Think Of Is Really A Question: Why Can’t People Be Happier Together?

When I Start On A Film I Always Have A Number Of Ideas About My Project. Then One Of Them Begins To Germinate, To Sprout, And It Is This, Which I Take And Work With. My Films Come From My Need To Say A Particular Thing At A Particular Time. The Beginning Of Any Film For Me Is This Need To Express Something. It Is To Make It Nurture And Grow That I Write My Script- It Is Directing It That Makes My Tree Blossom And Bear Fruit.