[I'm concerned with] aesthetics and this idea of how the passage between life and death goes. I can visually present that by borrowing this Buddhist statue.

However fake the subject, once photographed, it's as good as real.

If I already have a vision, my work is almost done. The rest is a technical problem.

I try to never be satisfied; this way I will always be challenging my spirit.

To me photography functions as a fossilization of time.

Art resides even in things with no artistic intentions.

The 1,000 Buddha, to me, is almost like a contemporary art piece.

When I wake up I just make it happen. My dreams come true- that is the artistic practice.

Art is technique: a means by which to materialize the invisible realm of the mind.

Art always helps religion; it became an inseparable phenomenon when human beings gained consciousness.

[Takashi] Murakami, do you think he is spiritual? He is more like de-spiritualized. De-spiritualized might be the most contemporary aspect of the human mind.

I still don't know what it really means to grow up. However, if I happen to meet you, one day in the future, by then, I want to become someone you can be proud to know.

You can almost always find chains of coincidence to disprove magic. That's because it doesn't happen the way it does in books. It makes those chains of coincidence. That's what it is.

It's too cold outside for angels to fly.

With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.

For every rockabilly festival staged here, there are 10 held overseas.

The ancient Greeks were the first ones to say an unexamined life is not worth living. They don't tell you of course what we found out, an examined life not that fascinating either.

I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience.

Being happy never goes out of style.

You deserve all the good things that happen to you. Don't feel guilty and accept the blessings.

Pray as if it's up to God, work as if it's up to you.