Like many other kids, I liked watching anime.

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.

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.

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.

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

In my view, investing in public libraries is an investment in the nation's future.

Spiritual infirmities such as tepidity are caused, not only by chills but also by fevers, that is, by excessive zeal.

Design provides solutions, art asks questions.

If a problem is insoluble, it is Necessity. Leave it alone.

The Unity Band project has been life-changing for me. I have led many groups of talented musicians, but this is unlike anything else.

Having set one's family in consonance with the community, he should make his family prosperous to ensure the prosperity of the community.

Zeus looked like a really buff, really angry hippie.

Detachment is not about refusing to feel or not caring or turning away from those you love. Detachment is profoundly honest, grounded firmly in the truth of what is.

Predictability can lead to failure.

Human care (of animals) is simply sentimental, sympathetic patronage.