I've been immersed in manga since I was a kid. I grew up with this culture. So I started to think about how to compare manga to contemporary art.

My aesthetic sense was formed at a young age by what surrounded me: the narrow residential spaces of Japan and the mental escapes from those spaces that took the forms of manga and anime.

Rather than a big figure, I guess you could say I'm more of an influential minority symbol.

I'm very sad to be compared with Warhol and The Factory, because I have no drugs, you know. We have no drug culture in Japan! Maybe it's because our attitude toward labor is totally different.

The way I formed my studio and how I organize things actually came out of the model of the Japanese animation studio and the manga industry. The manga industry is gigantic in Japan.

New York City is still the art capital - every time I'm in New York, I'm thinking about competition.

Like many other kids, I liked watching anime.

I'm always very interested in breeding. Raising cacti is breeding. My lotus plant collection is breeding. The insects are breeding.

Serve one another with great humility.

Only those blinded by greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy.

There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.

Do not fret over your heavy troubles, for they are the heralds of weighty mercies.

Many are less fortunate than you' may not be a roof to live under, but it will serve to retire beneath in the event of a shower.

My time in Moscowmade a man of memade me an artistthere was a reality and a brutality of life that I think was very important, as a young American, for me to see.

I'm doing a film now with a lot of guys as well, so at the end of that I will be growing a beard.

One way or another, the choice will be made by our generation, but it will affect life on earth for all generations to come

Some artists imagine they've got a hold on this apparatus, which in fact has got a hold of them. As a result, they end up supporting a cultural prison that is out of their control

The child in you, like all children, loves to laugh, to be around people who can laugh at themselves and life. Children instinctively know that the more laughter we have in our lives, the better.