Ken Hakuta

“Generally, successful fads have some kind of play value, like the Frisbee, Slinky, Silly Putty, my Wallwalker. They're generally inexpensive items, impulse items. They tend to be rather useless items, too. They provide a few minutes of amusement.”

“Opportunity just exists in the air for a few minutes. If you don't obey your gut feeling right away, you've lost your chance.”

“Nam June Paik's artworks are highly intellectual, cutting-edge, and sophisticated. But he was also witty, humorous, and self-deprecating.”

“Other people might buy a Rolls-Royce. I'd rather encourage people to be creative.”

“It was very enticing to become a yuppie, but I didn't want to do that.”

“Contrary to what most people believe, fads are made, not born.”

“Voting statistics for younger voters is pathetic.”

“The Japanese really like things very well planned out. I enjoy things as they come by.”

“In California, you want to have the strangest thing, be doing the strangest thing. People admire that.”

“It's crazy to go into manufacturing. That's not where the money is.”

“You can't be an inventor trying to figure a better way of changing the spare tire. That's boring. We need someone who figures out how to hit a button and turn the entire car upside down.”

“Fads are born to die.”

“When I was a boy, my father used to criticize me for - it's hard to translate - I guess you could say 'mindless time.' Thinking what to do. I need to be bored so I can be pushed into doing something.”

“It's incredible how much money you can make on a rubber toy.”

“Al Gore has a lot to do with the mainstream attention to global warming, but you can't call him a fad, even if he did dance the Macarena.”

“I've become obsessed with preserving Shaker furniture. I feel as though every influence in my life, everything I've learned and know, all the money I've made, has come together to take care of it.”

“In fad standard time, a day is a month, and a fad that lasts two months is a classic.”

“I want the Wallwalker in the back of consumers' minds, but not actively thought about. When it returns, they'll react, 'Oh, there they are!' and they'll buy them again as impulse items.”

“I want to be the Ann Landers for fad people.”

“I don't need a big K Street office or a British secretary or a facade for my ego.”