It is the Germans who are responsible for the fact that I became a fabricator of arms. If not for them, I would have constructed agricultural machines. (...) If someone asks me how I can sleep at night knowing that my arms have killed millions of people, I respond that I have no problem sleeping, my conscience is clean. I constructed arms to defend my country.

The fact that people die because of an AK-47 is not because of the designer, but because of politics.

I was probably born with some designing abilities.

I'm proud of my invention, but I'm sad that it is used by terrorists.

When a young man, I read somewhere the following: God the Almighty said, 'All that is too complex is unnecessary, and it is simple that is needed.' So this has been my lifetime motto – I have been creating weapons to defend the borders of my fatherland, to be simple and reliable.

Life is composed of different inventions.

It is painful for me to see when criminal elements of all kinds fire from my weapon.