Quotes

[on Akira Kurosawa] I am proud of nothing I have done other than with him.

[on speaking English] I can't speak English, Instead memorize English lines by the sounds of the words.

I'm not always great in pictures, but I'm always true to the Japanese spirit.

[on the xenophobia displayed by his fellow troops in the Japanese army during World War II] There I was, a naive man of 20. The other bewildered young recruits were stirred up to a blood lust. What a nightmare!

That the Japanese film is known at all in the West is due mainly to the pictures of Akira Kurosawa. That I am known both here and abroad is also mainly due to him. He taught me practically everything I know, and it was he who first introduced me to myself as an actor. Kurosawa has this quality, this ability to bring things out of you that you never knew were there. It is enormously difficult work, but each picture with him is a revelation. When you see his films, you find them full realizations of ideas, of emotions, of a philosophy which surprises with its strength, even shocks with its power. You had not expected to be so moved, to find within your own self this depth of understanding.

[on the secret of his well-being] I still ride horses and do a lot of laughing. But I was born this way. I can't help it. When I was young, I played old men's roles. But now I'm a little boy!

[on Kenji Mizoguchi] He was a rather complex person and a perfectionist. A scene with a famous actress wasn't going so well, so Mizoguchi dismissed everyone for the day so they could quietly talk. He was a stickler for props. If an object was to be used in the movie for tea time, he might look at it and say, "This is a reproduction!" He would close down the set and order the prop man, "Get the original in Kyoto.".

No matter how much I drank the night before. I never once was late on his films. But with Kurosawa, sometimes people are waiting, and he never shows up. The people go to his house, and he says, "I'm sorry. I don't feel well today.".

Rashomon (1950) was a failure in Japan. We had no idea that it had been submitted to Venice. Kurosawa didn't go to the festival, neither did I. And hardly anyone knew it won the grand prize. There was a small article in a Japanese newspaper, that was all.

[on how he went from aspiring photographer to actor] After the War, I looked up my friend and asked if I could be a cameraman too. That's how I got to Toho. But Toho was on strike for most of three years, and lots of the acting stars went elsewhere. My friends submitted my resume and my photograph, unbeknownst to me.