The ambiguous orientation of Japan drove the country into the position of an invader in Asia.

My observation is that after one hundred and twenty years of modernisation since the opening of the country, present-day Japan is split between two opposite poles of ambiguity.

After the end of the Second World War it was a categorical imperative for us to declare that we renounced war forever in a central article of the new Constitution.

It is the second job of literature to create myth. But its first job is to destroy it.

Paradoxically, the people and state of Japan living on such moral props were not innocent but had been stained by their own past history of invading other Asian countries.

There's no better reading experience than going to the place where a text was written.

The ideal teacher student relationship exists when the student is better than the teacher.

To be upright and to have an imagination: that is enough to be a very good young man.

However, please allow me to say that the fundamental style of my writing has been to start from my personal matters and then to link it up with society, the state and the world.

If any suffering was fruitless it was the agony of a hangover; what he suffered now could not expiate suffering of any other kind.

The Japanese chose the principle of eternal peace as the basis of morality for our rebirth after the War.

Learn to adapt like a bird. We can only dream of flying but the bird has already grown her wings.

Your skills will aid you to define your brand. Your brand determines who leads you and who you lead.

God did not create evil. Just as darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of God.

The fact that God has prohibited despair gives misfortune the right to hope all things, and leaves hope free to dare all things.

What more could you ask for in life than to be given an impossible challenge?

I'm superstitious. Before I start a movie, I always kill a hobo with a hammer.

Riding a bike works your legs but not your brain. Playing chess works your mind but not your body. Climbing brings it all together.

You are born with only two fears: fear of falling and fear of loud noise. All the rest is learned. And it's a lot of work!

It seems that the greatest difficulty is to find the end. Don't try to find it, it's there already.