(FORTUNE Magazine) – WARREN BUFFETT, 59, billionaire investor and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, on why the company has borSrowed $400 million and put the cash into Treasuries: ''The best time to buy assets may be when it is hardest to raise money.''

SAM KUSUMOTO, 61, CEO of the American subsidiary of Japan's Minolta Camera, on how major U.S. companies have globalized: ''Japan is still 15 to 25 years behind. Catching up is the only way we're going to survive as a leading industrial nation. We've got lots to learn from the Americans.''

DIANE VON FURSTENBERG, 42, designer and socialite, on Edmond Safra, a onetime American Express executive and the Geneva banker who handles her money: ''You don't discuss your banker or your gynecologist. You just trust them.''