I think it was interesting that when you're in those formative years you respond to things that interest you and don't always know where they lead. But they accumulate and add up to something that enriches your later life or leads you to some new experience.

He [my father] didn't have a basement workshop as such, but I know that he did build things, construct things, repair things. My mother, likewise, was sewing and doing activities that often take place in a household.

I was there [in school] the full time with one teacher, and the student body was never more than 10 or 12 students of all ages.

You can find inspiration in everything. If you can't, then you're not looking properly.

Maybe that's what I've based my career on: getting up earlier than everyone else so I get an extra couple of hours.

The pastors and ministry leaders came away energized to have voter registration drives at their churches and motivated to encourage their congregations to "vote their values."

The Japanese are hard to understand, but once you do the world is your oyster.