“When I made 'Voices of a Distant Star,' I wanted to make money from ma...” — Makoto Shinkai Quote

“When I made 'Voices of a Distant Star,' I wanted to make money from making that movie, of course, but that wasn't my major reason.”

“I am from the countryside, very rural countryside, and I moved to Tokyo when I was 18 and have been living first-ever since. So yes, I am a city guy, but sometimes I sort of feel there's another me in a parallel world, still in the countryside.”

“I have never really sensed any of Miyazaki's artistic influence on Ando. If there is an influence, it's more in his attitude to his work.”

“Art at its most significant is a Distant Early Warning System that can always be relied on to tell the old culture what is beginning to happen to it.”

“I often visited a particular plant four or five miles distant, half a dozen times within a fortnight, that I might know exactly when it opened.”

“For me, the distant future and far-off galaxies is where it's at. That's where my imagination can really come out to play.”