Sometimes it's not the people who change, it's the mask that falls off.

My priority is my books, at least at this point. What I have to do is write the narrative of this time.

Some people can work their butts off and never get what they're aiming for while others can get it without any effort at all.

The pure present is an ungraspable advance of the past devouring the future. In truth, all sensation is already memory.

Our responsibility begins with our imagination.

I've translated a lot of American literature into Japanese, and I think that what makes a good translator is, above all, a feel for language and also a great affection for the work you're translating. If one of those elements is missing the translation won't be worth much.

It's a question of attitude. If you really work at something you can do it up to a point. If you really work at being happy you can do it up to a point. But anything more than that you can't. Anything more than that is luck.