I'm very impressed that there are so many fans - not just in Japan, but here in America - that are fond of the work that I've done. I'm actually kind of embarrassed by it all.

Donkey Kong Country proves that players will put up with mediocre gameplay as long as the art is good.

A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.

I never really participated in specific sports or anything, but once I hit 40, I started to get a little bit more active and began swimming more.

Games are a trigger for adults to again become primitive, primal, as a way of thinking and remembering. An adult is a child who has more ethics and morals, that's all. I am not creating a game. I am in the game. The game is not for children, it is for me. It is for an adult who still has a character of a child.

Of course, when it comes to Japanese role-playing games, in any role-playing game in Japan you're supposed to collect a huge number of items, and magic, and you've got to actually combine different items together to make something really different.

I don't really think of things in terms of legacy or where I stand in the history of Nintendo or anything like that.