Jan 5, 2017

Learn Valuable Lessons from Hayao Miyazaki

Japan's most revered animation filmmaker of all time, Hayao Miyazaki, was born on this day, January 5, in 1941. And at age 76, he's showing no signs of slowing down: he recently threatened to un-retire and make another feature film.

In honor of his birthday, you can read below a brief but inspiring excerpt from the anthology book Starting Point, 1979-1996, in which Miyazaki describes how to develop an idea for a film.

When Miyazaki wrote this in 1979, he had over a decade of experience working in animation and manga, but hadn't yet completed his first feature. Over the next four decades, Miyazaki would follow this approach, and the results of his legendary career speak for themselves: