“Personally I am very pessimistic. But when, for instance, one of my staff has a baby you can't help but bless them for a good future. Because I can't tell that child, "Oh, you shouldn't have come into this life." And yet I know the world is heading in a bad direction. So with those conflicting thoughts in mind, I think about what kind of films I should be making.”

“An adult can feel nostalgia for a specific time in their lives, but I think children too can have nostalgia. It's one of mankind's most shared emotions. It's one of the things that makes us human and because if that it's difficult to define. ... When you live, you lose things. It's a fact of life. So it's natural for everyone to have nostalgia.“

Miyazaki is the second of four brothers.  His father was an aviation engineer and passed on his fascination with flight to his son.  From his mother he inherited a love of reading and a social conscience.  As a child the family moved around whilst his mother was being treated for tuberculosis of the spine.  Whilst at high school he developed an interest in animation, but he graduated from Gakushuin University with a degree in political science & economics (1963).  After graduation he found a job at Toei Animation, where he met his wife, and eventually rose to the position of Chief Animator.  In 1971 he left for A Pro, where he met long-time collaborator and fellow founder of Studio Ghibli, Isao Takahata.  Studio Ghibli was founded in 1985 and since that time he has been responsible for some of the best animation to come from Japan and now has a world-wide following.