On behalf of my native Japan, I am grateful to the culinary community and hospitality industry for working together to raise much-needed funds to aid the tsunami and earthquake victims.

I'm not making art, I'm making sushi

Ramen is a dish that's very high in calories and sodium. One way to make it slightly healthier is to leave the soup and just eat the noodles.

Cook more often. Don't study; just cook.

I'm not a fighter, but in my mind I'm fighting every day. 'What's new? What am I doing?' I'm fighting myself. My soul is samurai. My roots aren't samurai, but my soul is.

New York is my, you know, second hometown.

Japanese chefs believe our soul goes into our knives once we start using them. You wouldn't put your soul in a dishwasher!

A lot of people think Japanese food is difficult, a lot of work. But you don't have to buy the knife I have. You don't have to train as long as I have. You can do my cooking in your kitchen.

No rules. Don't be afraid to do whatever you want. Cooking doesn't have to have rules. I don't like it that way.

A kitchen without a knife is not a kitchen.

Just ask the local people for the best food. Don't rely on a guidebook.

Beauty is light set free.

As a moth gnaws a garment so doth envy consume a man.

I was a federal public defender during the most important years of the drug war. I saw people go to jail for nothing, and go to jail for a long time.

The thing I love about live performance the most, is that the doors are closed, the lights are turned down, and the audience has to be reverential to what's happening onstage.

The worse feeling is when someone makes you feel special, then suddenly leaves you hanging, and you have to act like you don't care at all.

The solutions the non-profits are trying to provide aren't keeping pace with the problems they're trying to survive.

Life is simply better when we are with others, and worse when we are isolated. God designed us to be connected, and life breaks down when we are not.

No other road, no other way, No day but today!

Footballers are slaves. I know this from the personal experience of being a footballer.

Since I was doing all of it myself, I had to decide where I wanted to go with the songs, how to proceed with the chords, if the sound was alright, and all that detail on my own.