A samurai should always be prepared for death - whether his own or someone else's.

I make my own limits which are drawn according to my own taste.

All my knowledge comes from research.

A lot of my stories are inspired by Japanese folklore or literature or movies: I've done stories based on Kabuki and Noh plays, and on Kurosawa's 'Yojimbo' movies.

I contemplate the bones for a while then turn away. I have work to do. Next year I will have an odako that is bigger, grander, more beautiful than anyone has ever seen. Next year.

The innocence of a child is an astounding quality which if not withered away as they grow can spread love and happiness everywhere

We're a team. It's part of our job to help each other out, and to forgive each other quickly. Otherwise, we'd never get anything done.

We have to consider who is going to be the best prime minister to take on a "one nation" agenda.

A body of 500 men chosen at random from amongst the unemployed.

I'm a very wealthy man.

Freedom is the dream you dream While putting thought in chains again --

Republicans are not a political party. It's a mental condition.

I can live only wholly with you or not at all.

We may feel the pain of falling back from a level of affluence to which we have grown accustomed, but most people in developed countries are still, by historical standards, extraordinarily well off.

'Take offense at the drop of a hat' is the unwritten eleventh commandment.