Quotes by Japanese authors

See the complete list of authors from Japan

"That is one reason so many of the Japanese pictures are not good, they cannot spare all the footage necessary for that bow, which is repeated over and over again"

Sessue Hayakawa, Actor

"A great revolution in just one single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a society and, further, will enable a change in the destiny of humankind"

Daisaku Ikeda, Writer

"Clearly, this Sino-Japanese War of more than four years was a considerable burden on Japan's national power and an obstacle to the maintenance of peace in the Pacific"

Tojo Hideki, Statesman

"When a project has an ample budget, I am interested now in using bigger units of materials"

Yoshio Taniguchi, Architect

"I don't have dreams. How can I say it? I myself am a dream"

Ayumi Hamasaki, Musician

"It's been a career filled with very low valleys and some wonderful, high peaks"

Pat Morita, Actor

"Let them bomb Japan with that nasty missile. Their missile cannot load a nuclear warhead"

Shintaro Ishihara, Politician

"The staff at the Institute will present an analysis on how asset price fluctuations and subsequent structural adjustments influence sustained economic growth, based on Japan's experience since the second half of the 1980s"

Toshihiko Fukui, Public Servant

"The way I create music is maybe like a painting, to compose in a more visual way. Basically it's the music that I want to hear- that's my inspiration and bottom line. I just try to get ideas from books, movies, paintings"

Ikue Mori, Musician

"Somebody gave me this drum machine and somebody else asked me to program something for a project. I really liked programming and I was really interested in using the drum machine"

Ikue Mori, Musician

"It is hard to be an individual in Japan"

Haruki Murakami, Writer

"When drawings of the main buildings I have designed in the last five years are juxtaposed, the fact that they all involve the pursuit of certain configurations is obvious to anyone"

Yoshio Taniguchi, Architect

"I didn't work hard to make Ruby perfect for everyone, because you feel differently from me. No language can be perfect for everyone. I tried to make Ruby perfect for me, but maybe it's not perfect for you. The perfect language for Guido van Rossum is probably Python"

Yukihiro Matsumoto, Scientist

"From the viewpoint of what you can do, therefore, languages do differ - but the differences are limited. For example, Python and Ruby provide almost the same power to the programmer"

Yukihiro Matsumoto, Scientist

"I read and watch movies. I can't go to the movie theater much anymore, though, because I get recognized. It's worse sometimes if I wear a costume and try not to get recognized. I watch most of my films on airplanes"

Ayumi Hamasaki, Musician

"With a rock band, you play the same things over and over and over"

Ikue Mori, Musician

"Mars is really different, into art. Lydia Lunch is more energy. James Chance is more commercial in a different way, in funk and jazz. They were all doing original things, trying to create their own sound and music. I think they're all great"

Ikue Mori, Musician

"I lost some of my friends because I got so famous, people who just assumed that I would be different now. I felt like everyone hated me. That is the most unhappy time of my life"

Haruki Murakami, Writer

"I didn't want to be a writer, but I became one. And now I have many readers, in many countries. I think that's a miracle. So I think I have to be humble regarding this ability. I'm proud of it and I enjoy it, and it is strange to say it this way, but I respect it"

Haruki Murakami, Writer

"I have come East to find what the public likes"

Sessue Hayakawa, Actor

"The second is that the role of China trade in Japanese economy, important as it is, has often been exaggerated, as proven by our experience of the past 6 years"

Shigeru Yoshida, Politician

"By perfecting this legislative machinery and by participating in the various international agreements we intend to contribute to the wholesome development of world trade"

Shigeru Yoshida, Politician

"All things entail rising and falling timing. You must be able to discern this"

Miyamoto Musashi, Soldier

"I always wanted to get out of Tokyo and in 1977, New York seemed like the most interesting place to visit. I didn't intend to live here- I just wanted to get out and see what was happening. I just happened to stay here then"

Ikue Mori, Musician

"Actually, there was another band where we were three girls, around '84 when I met John Zorn, called Sunset Chorus. It was just bass and drums and guitar- we didn't make any records but we played a lot of different clubs in New York"

Ikue Mori, Musician

"When I write about a 15-year old, I jump, I return to the days when I was that age. It's like a time machine. I can remember everything. I can feel the wind. I can smell the air. Very actually. Very vividly"

Haruki Murakami, Writer

"I am 55 years old now. It takes three years to write one book. I don't know how many books I will be able to write before I die. It is like a countdown. So with each book I am praying - please let me live until I am finished"

Haruki Murakami, Writer

"We pray that every field of science may contribute in bringing happiness - not disaster - to human beings"

Kenichi Fukui, Scientist

"In particular, for younger researchers on whom the future of mankind may depend. We believe that they are working with all the scientific wisdom at their disposal for the preservation of the inheritance of the earth and for the lasting survival of mankind"

Kenichi Fukui, Scientist

"You want to enjoy life, don't you? If you get your job done quickly and your job is fun, that's good isn't it? That's the purpose of life, partly. Your life is better"

Yukihiro Matsumoto, Scientist

"In our daily lives as programmers, we process text strings a lot. So I tried to work hard on text processing, namely the string class and regular expressions. Regular expressions are built into the language and are very tuned up for use"

Yukihiro Matsumoto, Scientist

"With love and patience, nothing is impossible"

Daisaku Ikeda, Writer

"The art music of the West has developed through out its history by means of individual geniuses, and out of the soil supporting them; non-Western musicians were born, and grew like the grasses of the field"

Toru Takemitsu, Composer

"Composition gives proper meaning to the natural streams of sound that penetrate the world"

Toru Takemitsu, Composer

"If you hire only those people you understand, the company will never get people better than you are. Always remember that you often find outstanding people among those you don't particularly like"

Soichiro Honda, Businessman

"The orthogonal features, when combined, can explode into complexity"

Yukihiro Matsumoto, Scientist

"Most of the tasks we do are for humans. For example, a tax calculation is counting numbers so the government can pull money out from my wallet, but government consists of humans"

Yukihiro Matsumoto, Scientist

"Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior. Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men"

Miyamoto Musashi, Soldier

"At times I experience hardship in trying to find the proper point of balance between traditional things and my own personality"

Princess Masako, Royalty

"I'm awkward at these things. Just being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Karate Kid was a real surprise and I was a little uncomfortable"

Pat Morita, Actor

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