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.

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.

His boat sank. They were all on his side.

Become the real you

It is hardily credible of how great consequences before God the smallest things are

It got very tedious saying the same jokes in the same way with the same attitude.

All of us are living with dogmas that we accept as truths. When one of these is overturned, there's an initial gasp, soon followed by a rush of exhilaration.

At the back of our brains is a blaze of astonishment at our own existence. The object of the artistic and spiritual life is to dig for this sunrise of wonder.

I think sharing experience makes everything better. When people get talking about how they've overcome something or how they haven't, it's nourishing.

I was born in Liverpool in England, and I lived there for the first nine years of my life.

He who receives a benefit should never forget it; he who bestows should never remember it.

The good news is, we're not bankrupt. The bad news is, we're close.