The desire to see Okinawa returned to Japan developed into a broad national consensus among our people.

It is only natural that for any statesman at the helm of any government the question of his country's security should be a concern of the utmost importance.

It is the earnest hope of our people that the world may see the day when all nuclear weapons are abolished.

If the attainment of peace is the ultimate objective of all statesmen, it is, at the same time, something very ordinary, closely tied to the daily life of each individual.

The international order established at the end of World War II could certainly have been worse. However, this order did contain certain factors which bore within them the seeds of instability.

All through the years since World War II, the Japanese people have, I am convinced, made strenuous efforts to preserve and promote world peace, contributing to the progress and prosperity of mankind.

I'm not afraid of death

Sometimes respect is as hard a currency as money is

There's nothing I believe in more strongly than getting young people interested in science and engineering, for a better tomorrow, for all humankind.

Praise never gives us much pleasure unless it concur with our own opinion, and extol us for those qualities in which we chiefly excel.

I've done loads of collaborations and I'm never totally happy with the outcome because it feels like you're compromising something of yourself in it.

Poetry for me is as much a spiritual practice as sexual ecstasy is.

Because we can imagine, we are free.

Girls have a way of knowing or feeling what you feel, but they usually like to hear it also.

Faith is the bird that sings while it is yet dark.

I love my cross-sectioned, cross-cultural audience. Some of them are doing better than the average guy, but my audience has always been people who are struggling to stay in the middle class.