Top 12 Makoto Shinkai Quotes

It’s the situations that these distant relationships create that interest me more than the distance itself.

I think most directors and people who make anime would agree that their latest film is probably the one they feel the most confident in, that they have done their best and put everything into.

But the thing about getting rejected is that you reflect and think and analyze about why you got turned down. You learn a lot more from stories about getting rejected than stories about becoming happy.

It is a part of puberty that we just want to go somewhere far away. We only have a vague image, like behind that mountain or a place more beautiful...

I consider my anime as if they were children who, once grown up, are free to take their own path and personally I do not want to intrude in their lives. No father should snoop in the affairs of their children.

But I do want to trigger emotions like his [Miyazaki] movies triggered our emotions.

You don’t want to be imitating his [Miyazaki] style. You’ve got to create something different, something that he hasn’t done.

I think that science fiction can, by creating extreme situations and settings, draw out the essence of human relationships.

If I had been born 10 years earlier, I don’t think I would be an animator.

I think animation can tell more than live action.

Your Name's success told me movies still have the power to connect with society. As a medium, it still has a power that resonates.

But... you can’t be Miyazaki, you can only be the second Miyazaki, and that isn’t something to aim for.