I think a lot of Japanese morals are built around what the dead would think of us.

It is righteous to receive state subsidies to make films that criticise the state - I want Japanese people to accept such European values.

When I watch an actress say a line, I watch how they deliver the lines with gestures.

When I was 27, I won an honorable mention in a scriptwriting contest and got a television job as an assistant director.

My grandfather had Alzheimer's. He would eat everything and anything that was around; then he wouldn't remember that he ate it and would demand to be fed again.

As the Japanese family gets more and more atomized, grandparents don't live with the nuclear family, so parents of children can't consult with their own parents about how to raise their children and rely on that to help raise them.

I watch 'Electronic Boy' faithfully every week - not because I like the show but because I'm interested in where the smartest T.V. producers and directors are going, what direction they are headed in.

My mother was really against it when I said I wanted to make films. She said that I should be a civil servant because that was safe, and it had security. But my mother was always very proud of my movies and would give videocassettes of them to all the neighbours.

Hardly anyone says anything real in the courtroom. Almost everything is decided ahead of time, and the truth is found behind the scenes.

I have never made a film to praise or to criticize something. That kind of filmmaking is nothing but propaganda.

Tokyo is wonderful for distribution of international films, a lot of Iranian films, Taiwanese films. But most of the art films are from Europe and Asia.

My mother loved films! She adored Ingrid Bergman, Joan Fontaine, Vivien Leigh. We couldn't afford to go together to the cinema, but she was always watching their movies on TV.

My father did not have a lot of security in his life. He did odd jobs. He had a real struggle to make money. He lost a lot of time in his 20s, after the war, because he was sent to a forced-labour camp in Siberia.

We used to have prawn tempura: that was my mother's favourite dish. But she had to go out to work instead of my father, so she couldn't find the time to cook nice meals. So we ate more modern food: a lot of frozen and instant food. But I never complained about it to my mother.

I am hopeful that films can connect people who are in conflict in a separated world.

As a son and as a father, there are still various things that I haven't done as well as I should have - that's my dilemma and regret.

I grew up without a father.

The children in 'Nobody Knows' had a resonance with me. The children are projections of myself.

When I choose child actors, I chose them for their personalities. And then I work with their own vocabulary, so I'm not imposing text or dialogue on them: I'm just receiving.

In the eighties, there was a huge shift in the humor of Japanese television. Up until then, the humor was garnered by people who said humorous things, but in the '80s, it was garnered by people who were being laughed at while the audience watches and watches.

Fast cutting, loud music, blood spewing everywhere, and gunshots permeating the scenes does not necessarily make for a shocking movie.

A lot of people, especially Japanese, come to the theater to have a good cry.

All my mother ever wanted to talk about was what she hated about my father and the times he cheated on her when he was younger. It really irritated me, and I told them they had to sort things out between themselves. Looking back on that, I see that it was really cold of me as a son.

The vividness of children is easier to see when they're completely left to their own devices.

I'm so entranced by what unfolds in front of the camera. It seems wonderfully out of my control.

I never want to be the all-knowing god of the story, manipulating what's to happen or the action.

It's definitely good to have a hit from time to time, though not too often. If you have a few hits in a row, people start to think every film you make will be a hit, which is a big mistake.

I have been told that... time doesn't flow in a straight line in my films. It goes round in a circle. Sometimes people comment that the films remind them of Ozu. Maybe that's right. But in Japan, nobody comments on how time passes in my films. So perhaps that is a different way of thinking.

My mother used to work in a bank in Tokyo. It was a busy district, and after work, she used to go and watch films.

When I have been told that my films remind people of Ozu, I have never been too convinced.

I am very happy that Japanese film can cross borders.