Top 35 Makoto Shinkai Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “When I was little the sky was closer.”

— Makoto Shinkai

2. “I still don’t know what it really means to grow up. However, if I happen to meet you, one day in the future, by then, I want to become someone you can be proud to know.”

— Makoto Shinkai

3. “I probably just want to leave a trace of myself behind in this world.”

— Makoto Shinkai

4. “It must really be a lonelier journey than anyone could imagine. Cutting through absolute darkness, encountering nothing but the occasional hydrogen atom. Flying blindly into the abyss, believing therein lie the answers to the mysteries of the universe.”

— Makoto Shinkai

5. “Even if the world is cruel, even if all I have is loneliness, I’ll still live with everything I’ve got. Even if this emotion is all I have, I’ll keep struggling.”

— Makoto Shinkai

6. “I feel like I’m always searching for someone, or something.”

— Makoto Shinkai

7. “Maybe we tried to leave as much memories of ourselves with each other because we knew one day we wouldn’t be together any more.”

— Makoto Shinkai

8. “I see why now Tohno-kun is different from the others. Like the rocket shooting off into space, on the loneliest journey? to the far end of the solar system. Because he’s always looking at something beyond me. He can never see me. I cried myself to sleep, thinking of him.”

— Makoto Shinkai

9. “Takaki, I’m sure you’re going to be just fine. No matter what happens, I know you’ll grow into a kind and wonderful adult. No matter how far away you go, I’ll always love you; I mean it.”

— Makoto Shinkai

10. “Let’s go home together.”

— Makoto Shinkai

11. “I realize now, I was learning how to walk as well. I haven’t mastered the steps, I fall too. But im on my path, my path... and one day that path... will take me to her.”

— Makoto Shinkai

12. “Still, even now, I’m fighting my way through. Perhaps it’s a bit dramatic to say, but I’m struggling against life. Wasn’t that what I decided once? To struggle. To live. To breathe and walk. To run. To eat. To bind, musubi. To live an ordinary life so I shed tears over the sights of a perfectly ordinary town.”

— Makoto Shinkai

13. “No human is always strong, but no human is weak forever, either.”

— Makoto Shinkai

14. “No matter what happens, even if the stars fall, I will live.”

— Makoto Shinkai

15. “Even if words are lost, tradition should be handed down.”

— Makoto Shinkai

16. “Yesterday, I had a dream... A dream I have had since long ago. In that dream, we had yet to turn 13. We were in a vast countryside, completely covered with snow. The lights of the houses extended far into the distance, a dazzling sight. We walked on the thick caprpet of fresh snow, but did not leave any footprints. And like that... ‘Someday we will be able to watch the cherry blossoms together again’. Both of us, without any doubt... That’s what we thought.”

— Makoto Shinkai

17. “I love her face when she smiles. But it could be that her smile is a lie that she uses to hide her clenched teeth. I don’t understand why she cried. I can’t even say, “You’ll be all right.” But I will always be by your side. After all, I am your cat.”

— Makoto Shinkai

18. “Sto venendo a cercare te, che non ho mai incontrato.”

— Makoto Shinkai

19. “A hundred people to a car, a thousand people to a train, a thousand trains crisscrossing the city.”

— Makoto Shinkai

20. “I’ve been worried for a long time. I’ve just been doing what I could. I don’t really have much choice.”

— Makoto Shinkai

21. “This hand once held something really precious...”

— Makoto Shinkai

22. “By just living one’s life, sadness accumulates here and there, be it in the blankets hung out in the sun to dry, the toothbrushes in the bathroom, and the phone history logs.”

— Makoto Shinkai

23. “I will craft shoes that will make her want to walk on and on.”

— Makoto Shinkai

24. “Who cares if we don’t see the sunshine again, I want you more than any blue sky.” – Hodaka.”

— Makoto Shinkai

25. “I’m not afraid of anything now. I’m not scared of anyone. I’m not lonely anymore. I finally understand. I’m in love. We’re in love. That means we’ll meet again. I’m sure of it. And so I’ll live. I’ll survive this. No matter what happens, even if the stars fall, I will live.”

— Makoto Shinkai

26. “And then after that long, long phone call, she wept.”

— Makoto Shinkai

27. “I’m turning into a version of myself who does nothing but wait for a message from her...”

— Makoto Shinkai

28. “Comin’ together to form a shape, twistin’ and tanglin’, sometimes comin’ undone, breakin’ off, then reunitin’. That’s a braided cord. That’s time. That’s musubi.”

— Makoto Shinkai

29. “I don’t fear death. It’s no different from sleeping – it’s like we practice dying every night.”

— Makoto Shinkai

30. “Kids are really something, all dumb and full of energy.”

— Makoto Shinkai

31. “If what’s at the core is simple, the ornamentation becomes more effective.”

— Makoto Shinkai

32. “The only one waiting at home for me is my cat!”

— Makoto Shinkai

33. “Why do the unremarkable sights of a town that no longer exists make my heart hurt this much?”

— Makoto Shinkai

34. “I believed things like happiness and misfortune depended on how you saw things.”

— Makoto Shinkai

35. “Even though we were all two who lived as one in the beginning, even though we were all connected, so humans are severed from the cord and fall into this life.”

— Makoto Shinkai