The rabbit is significant in that the handle on the original South Pointing Chariot was carved in the form of a rabbit. Because the handle extended out front it meant that wherever the rabbit went the chariot had to follow.

She's not happy about the life she is living but to jump through the hoop would mean to succumb to death.

The chariot was purchased by a private collector who took it home to New York. I take pleasure in knowing that it was built to last for at least a thousand years.

Having designed and built several clocks during my career it suddenly occurred to me that when you look at the face of a clock both hands have the same center.

You see, my ambition was not to confound the engineering world but simply to create a beautiful piece of art.

If we listen human instinct actually tells us what we need, but advertising makes us want things we don't need and things we can't have.

Once upon a perfect night, unclouded and still, there came the face of a pale and beautiful lady. The tresses of her hair reached out to make the constellations, and the dewy vapours of her gown fell soft upon the land.

As I was working I noticed that the way I designed the differential gearing actually created a spare drive that sat directly below the emperor's feet, or where they would be if he were to sit in the chariot.

I think most artists find it difficult to part with their work but it's the parting that keeps us alive and keeps us working. In the case of the chariot, although it's been sold I actually still have it, just in another form.

The rabbit is significant in that the handle on the original South Pointing Chariot was carved in the form of a rabbit. Because the handle extended out front it meant that wherever the rabbit went the chariot had to follow.

If you look closely you can see that they are all interconnected, symbolic of a never-ending circle in which it is simply impossible for the dog to catch the rabbit.

Today she is the lady of death, which I believe is the best muse to have.

The dog, the rabbit and the hoop all feature in the painting, and take the place of the orrery.

In the fairy tale the painting represents the here and now. The book is actually divided into five sections, through which the key character, the muse, leads us.

The engine of ancient society was religion but the engine of contemporary society, as I see it, is advertising.

I started by looking at what others had done before me. You see, over the years there have been attempts by many different people to reconstruct the chariot.

The dog and the rabbit are telling us not to chase unattainable material goals.

The original item looked like a little hand cart with the figure of a man mounted on a platform between the wheels. The man's outstretched arm always pointed south.

I made every single piece myself, each individual component, so it was quite time consuming.

In practical terms the South Pointing Chariot was a simple direction finder. It could have been made to point in any direction - north, south, east or west.

Newton, of course, was the inventor of differential calculus so his place in the tale is quite special.

He was so tenacious he defied the distraction of women by refusing to have them in his presence, just as later in life he denied his blindness by calling for more and more candles.

The hoop is there to remind us not to jump through it, not to submit to someone else's control.

I took lots of photographs and had planned to write a treatise on how it worked, but I quickly got bored with that idea and wrote a scientific fairy tale instead.

I think that when a person is insecure about who they are or who they want to be, then it translates on screen, and the choices they make are all about perception.

Interestingly, I matured as a musician and as an artist before I matured as a man. What I mean by that is, I was ready to be completely vulnerable and honest with myself and unapologetic when it comes to how I express myself in my medium. But I wasn't as secure in doing that when it came to just being myself.

I don't think you can be a Catholic without an accompanying measure of guilt.

We all look for lost time.

Heavy metal drives me bonkers it makes me want to vomit heavy metal really is a pile of puke.

I learned compassion from being discriminated against. Everything bad that's ever happened to me has taught me compassion.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Thinking ahead, in 2013, the Japanese government, together with pharmaceutical companies and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established a fund for promoting research and development of medical products for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). The importance of planning for disease outbreaks was made clear with the Ebola virus.

I can create countries just as I can create the actions of my characters. That is why a lot of travel seems to me a waste of time.

Because of the structure of the contemporary American party system, every president is polarizing.

I kind of figured if I couldn't get a job as a dwarf, looking as I do, I should just give up acting.

The comic book world is a tough business.

How do you sustain yourself when all the old structures people looked to for support - religion, family, ethnic solidarity - are crumbling, or feel so false that you refuse to avail yourself of them? What comes next?

Jealousy is the dragon in paradise, the hell of heaven, and the most bitter of the emotions because associated with the sweetest.

As a fiscal conservative, I think that our government should pay for itself.

Most of what gets made now, you laugh your way through, go home and forget you've seen it.

I do have a little chip on my shoulder. I want to make a name for this state. I want to represent this state well so that's kinda the chip on my shoulder in that regard.

You never know where a blessing can come from.

Growing up, I never felt like the pretty girl.

I come from an almost wholly secular background and have no quarrel with religion.

The orchestral or symphonic music never interested me.

Every time we become aware of a thought, as opposed to being lost in a thought, we experience that opening of the mind.

I don't have a real plan when I do an interview. I have some themes that I want to hit. But I don't have a set list of questions that I knock off.

I describe myself as a simple Buddhist monk. No more, no less.