Quotes by Japanese Authors - Page 25

The whole universe is like some big FedEx box.
Haruki Murakami
My words did not seem to reach her. Or, if they did, she was unable to grasp their meaning.
Haruki Murakami
I feel very strongly that all Japanese at that time had the idea drilled into them of 1999 being the end of the world. Aum renunciates have already accepted, inside themselves, the end of the world, because when they become a renunciate, they discard themselves totally, thereby abandoning the world. In other words, Aum is a collection of people who have accepted the end. People who continue to hold out hope for the near future still have an attachment to the world. If you have attachments, you will not discard your Self, but for Renunciates it's as if they've leaped right off the cliff. And taking a giant leap like that feels good. They lose something - but gain something in return.
Haruki Murakami
Life in this village is like that of a louse hanging on to a wrinkle in a loincloth.
Susumu Katsumata
What is essential is to suddenly make a move totally unexpected by the opponent, pick up on the advantage of fright, and seize the victory right then and there.
Miyamoto Musashi
The little things are important, Mr. Wind-Up Bird,
Haruki Murakami
Spirals.... this town is contaminated with spirals.
Junji Ito
I've always loved fixing broken things.If something fixed by myself caused a smile, I'd feel saved. In that case it would be worth it. And I was delighted.
Hiro Kiyohara
Because the first time they met...Y-da: "You know, Y-naga-san, the more makeup you put on, the more you look like a guy in drag. So I'm going to call you F-mio!"Y-naga: "I-I like this person!"The moment she fell in love.
Fumi Yoshinaga
Whenever you get something in this world, you lose something too — that's just the way things work.
Banana Yoshimoto
...that the decline in reading among children was largely the fault of their parents. Parents these days don't read books, themselves, but they feel they should make their children read. Since they aren't readers, however, they have no idea what to give their children. That's why they cling to the recommendations from the Ministry of Education. Those books are all insufferably boring and, as a result, the kids learn to hate books. It's a vicious cycle with no end in sight.
Keigo Higashino
We both have no home to go back to... so we can go anywhere at all.
Kazuya Minekura
She was a keen observer, a precise user of language, sharp-tongued and funny. She could stir your emotions. Yes, really, that's what she was so good at - stirring people's emotions, moving you. And she knew she had this power...I only realized later. At the time, I had no idea what she was doing to me.
Haruki Murakami
Rima: "Hey Shiki, won't you be my husband?"Shiki: "sure."Rima: "How rash..."Shiki: "Ehh? Why...? It means that you will be my friend and companion forever. What is there to ponder?
Matsuri Hino
I am you, Umasi, and I am weak." the shadow spun around and began walking away. "In the end, either you will conquer me…or I will conquer you.
Isamu Fukui
Madoka: Won't anyone notice that Mami-san is dead?Homura: Mami Tomoe's only relatives are distant relations. It will be quite some time before anyone files a missing persons report. When one dies on that side of the wards, not even a body is left behind. She'll wind up forever a "missing person"... That is what happens to magical girls in the end.Madoka: ...That's too cruel! Mami-san has been fighting all alone for a long time for everyone's sake! For no one to even notice that she's gone... That's just too lonely a fate...Homura: It is just that kind of contract that gives us the power in the first place. It isn't for anyone else's sake. We fight on for the sake of our own prayer. So for no one to notice... for the world to forget us... That is just something we have to accept.
Magica Quartet
All I could do was escape from reality, but every time I tried to escape from the pain, that same pain told me that I had probably been falling in love with him.
Hitomi Kanehara
The light within the darkness- you've lost sight of it.
Shiro Amano
Bushido as an independent code of ethics may vanish, but its power will not perish from the earth; its schools of martial prowess or civic honor may be demolished, but its light and its glory will long survive their ruins. Like its symbolic flower, after it is blown to the four winds, it will still bless mankind with the perfume with which it will enrich life.
Inazo Nitobe
Wasn't it better if they kept this desire to see each other hidden within them, and never actually got together? That way, there would always be hope in their hearts. That hope would be a small, yet vital flame that warmed them to their core-- a tiny flame to cup one's hands around and protect from the wind, a flame that the violent winds of reality might easily extinguish.
Haruki Murakami
Life is not like water. Things in life don't necessarily flow over the shortest possible route.
Haruki Murakami
Take fireflies for example. Try to imagine their beauty, the evanescent beauty of their lives, which don't even last a week.Female fireflies flash their lights only to have intercourse with the males; males twinkle just to have intercourse with the females. And once their mating has finished, they die. In short, their reproductive instinct is the single, absolute reason for fireflies to live. In that simple instinct and their simple world, no kind of sadness can intervene. This is precisely why fireflies are so fleetingly beautiful.
Tatsuhiko Takimoto
Reality spilled out into the alley like water from an overfilled bowl - as sound, as smell, as image, as plea, as response.
Haruki Murakami
I'm an idiot like you said, so whatever you say about me doesn't matter, but you know... Don't you dare point a gun at your own brother!
Kazue Kato
During the 24/7 grind of being a carer, it's all to easy to forget the fact that the person you're doing so much for is, and is obliged to be, more resourceful than you in many respects.
Naoki Higashida
Once in a while a story is spectacular enough to break through and attract media attention, but the swell quickly subsides into the general glut of bad news over which we, as citizens, have so little control.
Ruth Ozeki
No matter where you are, you're always a bit on your own, always an outsider.
Banana Yoshimoto
It was the truth. I felt a yearning love for every instant that passed.
Banana Yoshimoto
We sit to make life meaningful. The significance of our life is not experienced in striving to create some perfect thing. We must simply start with accepting ourselves. Sitting brings us back to actually who and where we are. This can be very painful. Self-acceptance is the hardest thing to do. If we can’t accept ourselves, we are living in ignorance, this darkest night. We may still be awake, but we don’t know where we are. We cannot see. The mind has no light. Practice is this candle in our very darkest room.
Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi
Death leaves cans of shaving cream half-used.
Haruki Murakami
Fate is a cruelly sweet fruit.
Jun Mochizuki
But do you imagine there’s a certain type of person in the world who conforms to the idea of a ‘bad person'? You’ll never find someone who fits that mold neatly, you know. On the whole, all people are good, or at least they’re normal. The frightening thing is that they can suddenly turn bad when it comes to the crunch. That’s why you have to be careful.
Sōseki Natsume
When you die, you want to die a beautiful death. But what makes for a beautiful death is not always clear. To die without suffering, to die without causing trouble to others, to die leaving behind a beautiful corpse, to die looking good -- it's not clear what is meant by a beautiful death. Does a beautiful death refer to the way you die or the condition of your corpse after death? This distinction is not clear. And when you start to stretch the image of death to the method of how to dispose of your corpse as befitting your image of death, everything grows completely out of hand.
Shinmon Aoki
I have no regrets because I know I did my best – all I could do.
Midori Ito
I didn't know the real reason that she was crying. I was just carried away by the feeling of her in my arms, trembling and warm.
Kaori Ozaki
I am living breathing freedom
Hiroko Sakai
When people start getting depressed there’s just no end to it—things just seem to get worse and worse.
Banana Yoshimoto
8. The Cat Who Lived in the PalaceThe cat who lived in the Palace had been awarded the head-dress of nobility and was called Lady Myobu.
Sei Shōnagon
A window of opportunity might present itself in tomorrow's battle. The odds of that happening may be 0.1 percent, or even 0.01 percent, but if I could improve my combat skills even the slightest bit- if that window were to open even a crack- I'd find a way to force it open wide. If I could learn to jump every hurdle this little track meet of death threw at me, maybe someday I'll wake up in a world with a tomorrow.
Hiroshi Sakurazaka
We truly believed in something back then, and we knew we were the kind of people capable of believing in something - with all our hearts. And that kind of hope will never simply vanish.
Haruki Murakami
I only had the right to sit in the shadows of the world,in complete silence. Whether I was laughed at, or told I was discusting, or thought of as unpleasant I would sit in the shadows.
Novala Takemoto
I want to have her hands..!Morino's hands...
Otsuichi
Does this world feel like hell to you? Of course it does, because it is.
Naoyuki Ochiai
Never let life's hardships disturb you ... no one can avoid problems not even saints or sages.
Nichiren Daishonen
Life itself is a frightening image for every human being.... being strong in life isn't easy.
Inuyasha
The first prerequisite for fine literature is that the writer must see the language not as a transparent medium for self-expression or the representation of reality, but as a medium one must struggle with to make it do one's bidding.
Minae Mizumura
I cannot say this too strongly: Do not compare yourselves to others. Be true to who you are, and continue to learn with all your might.
Daisaku Ikeda
Sometimes I feel as if I'm racing with my own shadow
Haruki Murakami
I used to think that people are were supposed to be more strange, and dirty, and full of all sorts of emotions, pity and nobility, with infinite layers of complications.
Banana Yoshimoto
Even chance meetings are the result of karma… Things in life are fated by our previous lives. That even in the smallest events there’s no such thing as coincidence.
Haruki Murakami
All stories are the sin of their weaver.
Miyuki Miyabe
The man at the end of the bar was looking at me. ... Should I get drunk and sleep with him now? But I could see that I would regret that so much I would want to die after. I didn't want to get involved with anyone, and I didn't want to bear being alone with the warmth left by someone long gone.
Fuminori Nakamura
The art of life lies in a constant readjustment to our surroundings.
Okakura Kakuzo
Listen to the beat of your soul ~Soul Eater
Atsushi Ohkubo
Her words didn’t have the acrid smell of death.
Haruki Murakami
Sakaki: "...Why can't we just talk it over...?"Tomo: "You can't talk to cats.
Kiyohiko Azuma
Just as trees bear their fruit before winter, just as bamboo grass produces its seeds just before it withers, sex is simply a struggle with death on the human level.
Kōbō Abe
It’s because we help out when they’re in trouble that we can count on them to come running when we need it.-Shikamaru Nara
Masashi Kishimoto
There's so much to write. Where should I start?I texted my old Jiko this question, and she wrote me back this:'You should start where you are
Ruth Ozeki
Kindness and a caring mind are two separate qualities. Kindness is manners. It is superficial custom, an acquired practice. Not so the mind. The mind is deeper, stronger, and, I believe, it is far more inconstant.
Haruki Murakami