Challenges are the key in life. You always have to challenge yourself and try to get to different states.

I have always liked black and white! It is simple and the colour of the piano.

Nobody wants to experience sad events but people like to listen to sad songs. That's the beauty of music.

The way to respect all the people I love is to eat the music, have it in my blood and bones, and try to explore it in as much different ways as possible to create my own identity.

Every day is different and improvised. Sometimes, a song can lead to a completely different adventure. You can't control it.

I started to listen to Japanese jazz musicians when I went to high school. Some people I listened to were Yosuke Yamashita, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Sadao Watanabe.

Work hard! Just keep working hard until you can do something you want to do! We all progress at different speeds and in different ways, so be patient and keep working hard!

The beautiful thing about music is that even so-called negative emotions like anger, sadness, frustration, when they come through the filter of music, they all become beautiful.

Everybody improvises without noticing it. Life is about improvising. You can't control what happens in your life, I mean, you don't know what can happen in your life today. So you somehow improvise.

Everything is inspiring! It could be fine art or a conversation I have with somebody!

To be nice to people and make them happy - that's my philosophy in life.

Take care of your life force and always keep it streaming. Always be active and creative, and never ever stop dreaming.

A bit of research can save you hours, days of time correcting mistakes that you never had to make in the first place.

Frailty, thy name is woman!—A little month, or ere those shoes were oldWith which she follow'd my poor father's body, Like Niobe, all tears:—

I’d thought there’d be no winter in the desert, but winter arrived anyway—silently, suddenly.

Children, I feel, are as much entitled to privacy as human beings.

Decisions! And a general, a commander in chief who has not got the quality of decision, then he is no good.

Don't protest outside of a rich man's house in the daytime, you'll just scare the maid, and that's Arnold Schwarzenegger's job.

Where are the links of the chain ... joining us to the past?

I think that the very earliest influence was a horror of having to work in a bank or an office, a desire for a free and creative life.

There is no magic to achievement. It's really about hard work, choices, and persistence.