Book by Miyazaki, you should buy it.

Amazon.com: Starting Point: 1979-1996 (9781421505947): Hayao Miyazaki: Books

Buy this book. I'm going to, and I haven't even read it yet... Here's a quote that hit me posted by Mayerson on his blog...

I like the expression "lost possibilities." To be born means being compelled to choose an era, a place, and a life. To exist here, now, means to lose the possibility of being countless other potential selves. For example, I might have been the captain of a pirate ship, sailing with a lovely princess by my side. It means giving up this universe, giving up other potential selves. There are selves which are lost possibilities, and selves that could have been, and this is not limited just to us but to the people around us and even to Japan itself.

Yet once born,there is no turning back. And I think that's exactly why the fantasy worlds of cartoon movies so strongly represent our hopes and yearnings. They illustrate a world of lost possibilities for us. And in this sense I think that the animation we see today often lacks the vitality of older cartoon movies. Economic constraints in production are often said to be the main reason, but it seems to me that something spiritual is also missing. It would be stupid to turn my back on the times in which we live and act arrogrant about it all, but I always find myself thinking that the old cartoon movies were indeed more interesting and exciting that we have today.

I've always had this thought, and yet Miyazaki NAILED it. Have you ever thought about every bit of possibility and potential you have left behind? I have. I could have gone into the military, I could have become a politician with aspirations for the presidency, I could have started an indy band and become the next big thing (for a little while), I could have gone into culinary arts and become a restaurant owner, I could have been born 50 years ago and been a scientist, I could have been born 100 years from now and gone out in the first mission to deep space... The possibilities were limitless, and, out of my own choices and the parameters set around me, I have endeavored to pursue the art of animation, in order to birth these worlds and present them to others to see. Whenever I tell a story, it's a little bit about me, and thankfully, I'm satisfied with that prospect, despite all the lost potential for greatness in other areas. Can you speak with the same satisfaction and resolution?