Hayao Miyazaki, the director and writer of movies such as My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Castle In The Sky, Pom Poko, and many others, is a very highly admired Japanese animation master. 

I love his works; plain and simple.  The story in each and every single one of his movies are so unique and very imaginative.  The way he presents them the viewer feels like they are a part of the story, right in front of them as it happens.  Full of virtue, knowledge, and magic.  I believe every artist and non should watch and learn from his works...it's a great  new world.

(below a script from an interview with Miyazaki back in 2002 as he launches Spirited Away in France.  This part among the rest of the itnerview I found very interesting).

Is it true that your films are all made without a script?

That's true. I don't have the story finished and ready when we start work on a film. I usually don't have the time. So the story develops when I start drawing storyboards. The production starts very soon thereafter, while the storyboards are still developing. We never know where the story will go but we just keeping working on the film as it develops. It's a dangerous way to make an animation film and I would like it to be different, but unfortunately, that's the way I work and everyone else is kind of forced to subject themselves to it.

But for that to work I can imagine it would be essential to have a lot of empathy with your characters.

What matters most is not my empathy with the characters, but the intended length of the film. How long should we make the film? Should it be three hours long or four? That's the big problem. I often argue about this with my producer and he usually asks me if I would like to extend the production schedule by an extra year. In fact, he has no intention of giving me an extra year, but he just says it to scare me and make me return to my work. I really don't want to be a slave to my work by working a year longer than it already takes, so after he says this I usually return to work with more concentration and at a much faster pace. Another principal I adhere to when directing, is that I make good use of everything my staff creates. Even if they make foregrounds that don't quite fit with my

to read the rest:

http://www.midnighteye.com/interviews/hayao_miyazaki.shtml