Ichiro Suzuki quotes:

August in Kansas City is hotter than two rats f**king in a sock.

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.

The Japanese have a strong tendency to suppress their own feelings. That's the Japanese character. They kill their own emotions.

I played on the 2001 team, the team that won the most games in the history of Major League Baseball and also I played on one of the worst teams of Major League Baseball.

I had a dream. And I made that dream come true.

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

I love baseball, but being here (in the United States), I've been able to play golf every day. I can't play in Japan because every course has caddies, and the caddies all want autographs and don't want to let me golf.

I heard that in the United States the level of baseball was the highest in the world. So it was only natural that I would want to go there, as a baseball player.

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

Chicks who dig home runs aren't the ones who appeal to me. I think there's sexiness in infield hits because they require technique. I'd rather impress the chicks with my technique than with my brute strength. Then, every now and then, just to show I can do that, too, I might flirt a little by hitting one out.

If I ever saw myself saying I'm excited going to Cleveland, I'd punch myself in the face, because I'm lying.

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.

When I look at the records and see where my place in the history of the game (in Japan with Orix) might be, I guess you could say it was a good decision to come here. It's not just me. Maybe I'll have an effect on others in the international part of the game.

I didn't know I hit that way (.625 with runners in scoring position). Maybe not knowing is my secret. If I chased numbers, maybe I wouldn't have as good results.

I'm anxious to face them (major league pitchers) all, but in reality I'm looking forward most to (Boston's) Pedro Martinez. He was with the major league team that came to Japan in 1996, just before he became a superstar. I'm anxious to see how much he's improved. And I'm anxious to see how much I've improved against him.

I've always prided myself in not reveling in past accomplishments and focusing on future achievement, instead. That's been my career motto.

In baseball, even the best hitters fail seven of ten times, and of those seven failures there are different reasons why. Some are personal failures, others are losses to the pitcher. You just get beat. In those personal failures, I felt I could have done better.

Some people enjoy taking a light stroll in the morning and that gives them relief and that sort of feeling. That is what I gain by practicing, by swinging the bat.

When you mail Ichiro something from the States, you only have to use that name on the address and he gets it (in Japan). He's that big.

I'm not a big guy and hopefully kids could look at me and see that I'm not muscular and not physically imposing, that I'm just a regular guy. So if somebody with a regular body can get into the record books, kids can look at that. That would make me happy.

I feel like I should be more in touch with the nuances of this game.

People striving for approval from others become phony.

You should seek approval from yourself.

I'm told I either look bigger than I do on television or that I look smaller than I look on television. No one seems to think I look the same size.

I want to be the first player to show what Japanese batters can do in the major league.

I think if you look at the friends, the kinds of relationships I have, I am not the kind of guy who has many shallow relationships. I think you could say I am the kind of guy who has a few relationships, but those are very deep.

As professionals we have a responsibility of providing a good show for the fans. Getting hits and home runs is what they want to see.

I've made far too many mistakes. That's the way I feel.

I wanted the challenge of competing against the best players in the world.

Baseball has been the greatest things in my life, but the cameras and the media surrounding baseball have not been fun. It's unnecessary. How many times do they see me stretch? How many times do they see me walk? It is a big concern. If it affected the team in a negative way, I don't know what I would do.

Everybody in the states is so relaxed, and everybody in Japan is so uptight.

When people get placed upon a pedestal - when they start chasing after that person on the pedestal - they become mannequin-like.