Ryuichi Sakamoto Quotes

I love what many of my contemporaries are doing, especially people like Terry Gilliam, David Cronenberg, P. T. Anderson, and Alfonso Cuaron.

Their films would probably be better if they'd seen a few more films, which runs counter to this idiotic theory that you run the risk of being influenced if you see too much.

Stanley Kubrick was a big inspiration. People accuse me of never using my own material. But when did Kubrick? You look at his films and they are completely unique... completely separate entities.

I would love to work with Shane Meadows - great director.

In terms of directing, there's a number of directors who definitely had a great impact on me, Woody Allen certainly being one of them.

I admire Akira Kurosawa. I have a deep admiration for him and I would love to make films like that.

Truffaut loved Hitchcock.

I like Soderbergh, Spielberg, Lucas. There's a lot of talented guys out there obviously, and if you're a fan of films, you have to look at that stuff and learn from them.

I always loved Japanese movies. And they had an enormous impact in France - the Nouvelle Vague took so much from them. It taught us how the camera was placed in the centre of the action.

Godard is incredibly brilliant, the things he says. Apparently here in France, the most interesting thing when a new film of his is going to come out are his press conferences, because he's so brilliant.

I guess that in this process of trying to incorporate or to be faithful to the films I admire so much, that's how I start to find my own voice. The admiration I have for filmmakers, this gratitude, perhaps that's my only way to become specific.

The best conversation with Stanley Kubrick is a silent one: you sit in a theatre and watch his films and you learn so much.

Friends who are directors like Jim Mangold or the Wachowskis or Zack Snyder - who, whether they know or not - have really left a mark on who I am as a director.

I want to work with Darren Aronofsky, Damien Chazelle, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and, of course, Majid Majidi.

I think about a lot of my favorite directors, and I think about their first films, and I have great admiration for the earthiness of those films.

I've been pretty lucky to work with directors who were quite influenced by European cinema.

From the moment I met Martin Scorsese in 1962, he educated me about the films that had taught him so much about filmmaking. He had been deeply affected, even as a child, by great films that stretched his mind and struck into his heart, and he was eager to share them with friends and people who worked with him or with actors who were in his films.

My all-time favorites that I always go back to are films by the director John Cassavetes. The movies he made, the work he left behind, have been a big influence for my work.

I like how you can go back and watch David Lean and John Ford and see the influence that had on Steven Spielberg, especially David Lean, in the camerawork, and yet, you don't watch any Spielberg movie and think of David Lean. Once you're looking for it, you see it all, but it's not in your face.

Truffaut loved actresses, and he was very intense. All the actresses I knew wanted to do a film with him.

Tarantino's stuff in its inception was all about finding a way for him to break into Hollywood.

I have the most respect for Rick. You're always going to see a Shameik Moore and Rick Famuyiwa film.

Louis Malle is maybe one of my favorite directors, but I love Tarantino.

I am sure I am one of 2,000 film directors in the world that Tarantino admires.

Francois Truffaut was my godfather on 'Sugar Cane Alley.' He believed in me and in that story, and told everyone that it should be made.