I want to die making something.

Direct quote 2025-06-10

“I want to die making something.”

What it documents

Kojima, who for years famously said he wanted to die watching movies, changed his mind after his serious illness in 2020 and began saying he wants to die making something. That crisis made him, for the first time, aware of his limited time and of the works — games, films and other things — he might not get to create, and as a result he has accelerated his pace.

Source

GQ — Sam White, «Hideo Kojima's Boss Fight With Time», 2025-06-10. View source ↗

“Kojima famously used to say he wanted to die watching movies. The last few years changed his mind: 'I want to die making something'”

death creativity

See on the map

“I thought that I could never recover. I felt like I might not ever be able to create a game again.”

body 2025-06-10 GQ, by Sam White
“Hideo, what you're making is already a movie. Keep going as you are.”

film 2023 Game Rant (Kojima on how del Toro "saved" him)
“is really what I'm scared of the most”

death 2025-06-10 GQ, by Sam White
In 2009 Kojima wrote that if he could have only one wish it would be to go into space before he dies. He said a brief orbit just beyond Earth’s atmosphere would be enough, and that to make it happen he would give up even his position as a game designer, his family, or his own life.

travel 2009-06 VIZ Media — The Creative Gene; official English translation
“People saying things like, I think Kojima has about three more games left in him. And I'm like, no, don't say that.”

death 2022-11 HIDEO KOJIMA presents Brain Structure, ep. 11 «Messages from our listeners!» (Spotify Studios × Kojima Productions); official English dub, own transcription

← Back to the archive

I want to die making something.

Related