Ichiro Suzuki

“There is nothing I will miss about Japanese baseball. Off the field, I will miss my dog.”

“As long as the ball is thrown by a human being, I have the confidence to hit any pitch, no matter how fast it comes.”

“I think there's sexiness in infield hits because they require technique.”

“I want to keep playing until I am at least 50.”

“When I'm being interviewed, presumably it's because people want to know how I feel about something or what my motivation is, not because they want to hear what I sound like in English. I wouldn't be true to the task if I responded in my unrefined English.”

“Personally, I don't like the term 'success.' It's too arbitrary and too relative a thing. It's usually someone else's definition, not yours.”

“Many people have this image of me. For a long time, I cared about that.”

“Nobody knows what the future holds.”

“I like things that other people don't have. I like to be different from others.”

“For me, if I stay on the couch all day - or even one day - I'll be more tired doing that than going out and giving my body a workout.”

“When you retire from baseball, you have until the day you die to rest.”

“When I think about it, if somebody was to pass Pete Rose's record just playing in Japan, that would be a bigger accomplishment because of the few games they play over there.”

“I believe that, as an athlete, how you got to the age of 42 makes a big difference. I have learned about my body; I haven't gone off only talent until I was 42.”

“If I'm in a slump, I ask myself for advice.”

“I like to read the news, but when I pull up a Japanese site, and an article comes up with my face, I never read it.”

“Chicks who dig home runs aren't the ones who appeal to me.”

“Equipment has heart, human heart, inside it.”

“The more that Japanese players go to the big leagues to play and succeed, the more that will serve to inspire young kids in Japan to want to become baseball players when they grow up.”

“I was kind of influenced by the hip-hop culture.”

“It's very tough for a ballplayer to get proud and keep his dignity.”