“I really didn't get it until very late in 2005 and 2006.”

“Late at night, listening to the winter rain
Recalling my youth —
Was it only a dream? Was I really young once?

As quoted in One Robe, One Bowl : The Zen Poetry of Ryōkan (2006) edited by John Stevens, p. 71”

“The movie itself was very interesting, but I didn't think it was very good because I didn't really feel different when it was over.”

“One doesn't recognize the really important moments in one's life until it's too late.”

“We're constantly being asked all sorts of very profound questions. But we're not very profound people. People say, 'What do you think of the H-bomb, of religion, of fan worship?' But we didn't really start thinking about these things until people asked us. And even then we didn't get much time to consider them. What do I think of the H-bomb? Well, here's an answer with the full weight of five O levels and one A level behind it: I don't agree with it.”

“On July 28th 2006, I was very proud to become a citizen of the United States — the greatest privilege on planet Earth.”

“Man, it was a good thing vampires didn't get cancer. Lately he'd been chain-smoking like a felon.”

“We stayed out of Memphis early on in the late 70s for obvious reasons. People were very sensitive about Elvis Presley, and my stage name obviously would be provocative to some people in that area at that time. So we didn't visit Memphis until about 1984.”

“The world is rapidly getting 'Ahmadinejadized,' if I'm allowed to make a joke. (20 November 2006)”

“My use of extracts from the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" was too much for political purity to take. It didn't matter that I had emphasised, as I do in this book, that this is not a plot by Jewish people; it didn't matter that I renamed them the "Illuminati Protocols" for the specific reason of getting away from their association with Jewish people; it didn't matter that these Protocols, which came to light in the late-1800s, contain details of the very plan of manipulation which has provably unfolded through the twentieth century.”