#hayao miyazaki
“To children who are unable to start living: When I was a young child, I thought it might have been a mistake that I was born.
As a child, I nearly died of illness. When my parents would say, “We went though a hard time with you,” I thought, “I’ve caused so much hardship for them,” and felt I couldn’t endure my uneasiness. So I didn’t have a happy childhood that I look back on with nostalgia. I passed as a “good kid,” the one among my siblings who was most obedient and gentle. When, at some point, I realized that I had just been matching myself to my parents’ expectations, I became so distressed that I wanted to scream in humiliation. This is why I do remember seeing for the first time beauty in the simple eyes of the cicada or feeling amazed that the tips of the legs of crayfish were scissors, but I erased from my memory how I related to other people.
I put on a cheerful front when I was among my friends. But inside was a timid self full of anxiety and fear.”
- Hayao Miyazaki, “Recalling the Days of My Youth”, The Akahata Sunday Edition, April 1998.
Howl and Sophie wip ♡
when hayao miyazaki said that true love was two people inspiring each other to live…recognizing just how hard living is, putting one foot in front of the other every day, how easy it is to lose our passion for it…… that’s the real shit