"Spend your money on the things money can buy. Spend your time on the things money can't buy."

"I dream. Sometimes I think that's the only right thing to do."

"I didn't read so much Japanese literature. Because my father was a teacher of Japanese literature, I just wanted to do something else."

"Some people think literature is high culture and that it should only have a small readership. I don't think so... I have to compete with popular culture, including TV, magazines, movies and video games."

"The Christian Bible is a symbolic book, not a literal one. The one Christians know as Jesus was actually a symbol for the sun. Ancient sun worshippers believed the sun died at the end of the winter solstice and then three days later it would be reborn at the start of its cycle - December 25."

"To all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past I extend my sincere thoughts and deep sympathy. With the benefit of historical hindsight we can all see things which we would wish had been done differently or not at all."

"Those who become mentally ill often have a history of chronic pain."

"Developments in information technology and globalised media mean that the most powerful military in the history of the world can lose a war, not on the battlefield of dust and blood, but on the battlefield of world opinion."