Takashi Miike Quotes

People come with expectations and as a bandleader I constantly try to remind the audience to leave its expectations in the lobby.

One of the things about what . . . I do - writing plays - is that a poll is not taken before you say, Well, I'm going to write this because I think that you're going to like this and therefore you'll buy a ticket for this.

All you can do is make a piece of product, sell it on its own terms, stand behind it and hope that people will go see it. If you try to be like something else or appeal to any given group, then you can very easily end up being gratuitous and imitative. There's not much to be gained by that and I think too much time is spent going around trying to be like someone else.

I'm not interested in trying to have people who might like other kinds of music follow me. I don't want to please them.

There are no limits to what you can create for you, because your ability to think is unlimited! But you cannot create other people's lives for them. You cannot think for them, and if you try to force your opinions on others you will only attract like forces to you. So let all others create the life they want.

People should be free to take whatever they want from music and I think that over time I realized that different people always find different things in my songs, which is really good.

Don't feel that you have to tailor your literature a particular way to please any school of ideology. There will emerge in its own right, effortlessly, some kind of ideological direction which is a reflection of your thinking and you want your thinking, above all.

I think about Dischord. There's been a pretty consistent notion that Dischord have been some sort of "overlords" of the scene. Some people have felt 'they are too cool for us,' or 'they won't put this out,' etc. All we're doing is our own work, our own thing. That's all we've ever done. Our work.

I was not going to be an actor. I was an engineer in physics. That's what I did: I graduated with a physics degree, and I had become a little bit distressed that I'd have to work for somebody - anybody! And I thought, "I'm not going to make a mark on anything. If I can't express myself, then I don't know what the heck I'm going to do with this life." I think it was just one of those germs that said, "No, no, no, you've got to say things. You've got to tell people things. You've got to express your opinion in this life, because that's how you started."

I had been in a place where I was letting too many people dictate who I should be and what I should be, and I was trying to make everybody happy to the point where it was just killing me. I'd completely lost myself. It's kind of funny now that people think I've completely changed myself for Marilyn Manson, when this is actually the first time in my life that I took a stand and said, "This is who I am and this is who I've always wanted to be, and I'm finally with somebody who lets me be who I want to be."

I think the world tries to put people in a box, like this is the only appropriate way to be beautiful.

I’m trying to please myself; certainly that’s a big criterion... though in a sense, I don’t take images just for myself. I take images that I think other people will want to see. I don’t take pictures to put in a box and hide them. I want as many people to see them as possible.

It takes people a little longer to get in to you when you have a distinct sound - especially if you're not force-feeding singles to pop radio. I try to be as much of an enigma as I can... because I want to be present and have people know what my message is, but then again, I want that mystery. There's a sensuality in the mystery that I think drives people to listen to my music.

My work is trying to at least define myself on my own terms, and then if other people enjoy things that's a lovely addition.

I never think about how other people will respond to the way I dress.

I follow my instincts and I always think about what movie I would like to see. If I want to see it then I'm guessing that some other people might want to see it as well. I never try to think about what people will love or will like, because when you start to think for other people that's where you lose track of the real motivation.

I don't pay attention to things like the talent for style. I don't meditate on things like that. I just do whatever I think I should do and go with it, and if people like it, then I'm very happy about it. And if not, I always figure it's their problem not mine.

I think you can talk about anything if the context is correctly arranged. If you set up the context and you bring the audience along carefully enough with you, you can get them to cross the line with you. What I try to do is talk about things that bother me, and I hope that in doing so I bother other people.

You have to look at the body of work you're doing and then figure out the best way for people to digest it. You want people to come in and listen to all of it and understand the entire project. I think it's bad when everyone's like, "This is how you have to do it."

I think no matter what you do, a certain amount of people are going to call you a sellout, somehow, you know. If I ever start trying to make a living on it.

I think cinema is better today that you can be more daring with what you do. If you do it well. With that comes a responsibility not to bore people with vulgarity and all that stuff. To know how to do it right, know how to lay it out there.

I'm not claiming to appeal to the same people that Christina Aguilera or Britney Spears are going to appeal to. I'm not trying to. I'm doing what I want to do.

People can try to make me into anything they want, but I think they're really throwing around language but saying the same thing.

All I've ever wanted to do is entertain people - make them laugh, think, smile, feel creeped out or scared; whatever it is. I'm getting the opportunity to do that in various roles.

Speaking for myself, I try to go out there on the stage and make jokes with people, so I'm not really thinking about the impact anything I have. If it does resonate with people, that's really great.