It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire.

One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes.

Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face.

I made odd noises as a child. Just did weird things, like turn off light switches twice. I think my parents thought I had Tourette's syndrome.

The most important part of the process of mourning is regularly reciting kaddish in a synagogue. Kaddish is a doxology, which Jewish tradition has mandated children to recite daily in a synagogue during the year of mourning for a deceased parent and then on the anniversary of his or her death thereafter.

Including my nine years as a student, the majority of my life has been at Hokkaido University. After my retirement from the university in 1994, I served at two private universities in Okayama Prefecture - Okayama University of Science and Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts - before retiring from university work in 2002.

There are a lots of clowns in our family - our house is a fun house.