Quotes by Japanese Authors - Page 33

He framed a question inwardly to his vanity: 'Will this be tougher than I thought?
Sōseki Natsume
She missed the built environment of New York City. It was only in an urban landscape, amid straight lines and architecture, that she could situate herself in human time and history. She missed people. She missed human intrigue, drama and power struggles. She needed her own species, not to talk to, necessarily, but just to be among, as a bystander in a crowd or an anonymous witness.
Ruth Ozeki
When will you ever accept the true ugliness of health?
Kōbō Abe
...he didn't know if he was Chuang Tzu who dreamed he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Chuang Tzu.
Inio Asano
No matter how much suffering you went through, you never wanted to let go of those memories.
Haruki Murakami
When we lost something precious, and we'd looked and looked and still couldn't find it, then we didn't have to be completely heartbroken. We still had that last bit of comfort, thinking one day, when we were grown up, and we were free to travel the country, we could always go and find it again in Norfolk.
Kazuo Ishiguro
Your brother is a sensitive person. Aesthetically, ethically, and intellectually he is in fact hypersensitive. As a result, it would seem that he was born only to torture himself. He has none of that saving dullness of intelligence which sees little difference between A and B. To him it must be either A or B. And if it is to be A, its shape, degree, and shade of color must precisely match his own conception of it; otherwise he will not accept it. Your brother, being sensitive, is all his life walking on a line he has chosen—a line as precarious as a tight rope. At the same time he impatiently demands that others also tread an equally precarious rope, without missing their footing. It would be a mistake, though, to think that this stems from selfishness. Imagine a world which could react exactly the way your brother expects; that world would undoubtedly be far more advanced than the world as it is now. Consequently, he detests the world which is—aesthetically, intellectually, and ethically—not as advanced as he is himself. That's why it's different from mere selfishness, I think.
Sōseki Natsume
You'll be okay. No matter what shape reality takes, you can handle it.
Shiro Amano
I'm Allen Walker!"My life....is over...I'm going to die....
Katsura Hoshino
here was no way of knowing what path he would take from there, but in order to survive as a human being, he was sure to arrive at the fate of having to incur the dislike of other human beings. When that time came, he would probably clothe himself inconspicuously, so as not to attract attention, and beggarlike, linger about the market places of man, in search of something.
Sōseki Natsume
As soon as I sat down across from her, she ordered me to put the entire contents of my pants pockets on the table. I did as I was told, saying nothing. My reality seemed to have left me and was now wandering around nearby. I hope it can find me, I thought.
Haruki Murakami
We are much too tolerant of the moral aberration of statesmen and bureaucrats.
Kenzaburō Ōe
And what made these heart-to-hearts possible--you might even say what made the whole friendship possible during that time--was this understanding we had that anything we told each other during these moments would be treated with careful respect: that we'd honor confidences, and that no matter how much we rowed, we wouldn't use against each other anything we'd talked about during those sessions.
Kazuo Ishiguro
I want to take one last journey together, just the three of us, and go back to Easterbury… and let the Corporal relax and rest in peace. I’ll be with you, Kieli, I’ll still be with you… Won’t that do…?
Yukako Kabei
The more one loves, the heavier the meaning of death becomes, and the deeper the sense of loss.
Otsuichi
And I really wanted to see you, too," she said. "When I couldn’t see you any more, I realized that. It was as clear as if the planets all of a sudden lined up in a row for me. I really need you. You’re a part of me; I’m a part of you.
Haruki Murakami
I think it would be more correct to say that mass movements are powerful, and therefore have the potential to do great damage or good. The United States mobilized in a way that could be called a mass movement to fight the Second World War–and so did the Japanese. Were those mass movements good or bad? Both nations felt justified in what they did, and the rights and wrongs depend on which side you are on.
Jared Taylor
There is only one way to overcome the difficulty of writing, and that is to write. Thought only becomes effective and productive at the time of writing.
Amélie Nothomb
There was no way I could be confident! But it was obvious that the patient will die if I don't do something!"-Dr. Honma
Osamu Tezuka
I'm alone inside the world of the story, my favorite feeling in the world.
Haruki Murakami
Zen is not some fancy, special art of living. Our teaching is just to live, always in reality, in its exact sense. To make our effort, moment after moment, is our way. In an exact sense, the only thing we actually can study in our life is that on which we are working in each moment. We cannot even study Buddha’s words.”-“So we should be concentrated with our full mind and body on what we do; and we should be faithful, subjectively and objectively, to ourselves, and especially to our feelings. Even when you do not feel so well, it is better to express how you feel without any particular attachment or intention. So you may say, “Oh, I am sorry, I do not feel well.
Shunryu Suzuki
Time does not expand.""But time is actually expanding, isn't it? You yourself said that time adds up.""That's only because time needed for transit has decreased. The sum total of time doesn't change. It's only that you can see more movies.
Haruki Murakami
Nights without work I spent with whisky and books.
Haruki Murakami
The page is to the story as the seed is to the flower.
Bankei Yotaku
True beauty is something that attacks, overpowers, robs, and finally destroys.
Yukio Mishima
Long before they had ever met, I think this destiny awaited them. They were not like ships passing in the night. It wasn't like they didn't understand each other. They understood each other better than anyone else, and each was focused solely on the other.
Gen Urobuchi
Nothing's going to change if you're just thinking about it. No matter how much you worry about someone else's problems.... you can't fix it for them.
Inio Asano
One altar forever is preserved, that whereon we burn incense to the supreme idol,--ourselves, our god is great, and money is his Prophet! We devastate nature in order to make sacrifice to him; we boast that we have conquered Matter and forget that it is matter that has forever enslaved us.
Kakuzō Okakura
Haruhi: This is a sibling squabble, not a fight to the death! You're both wrong, and acting like idiots only proves it!
Bisco Hatori
In the name of God, they stole her time and her freedom, putting shackles on her heart. They preached about God's kindness, but preached twice as much about his wrath and intolerance.
Haruki Murakami
History's shown that in this world, when you take your ideals too far, all you ever create is Hell.
Ken Akamatsu
I've decided. The next time I cry, it'll be for "someone special", and it'll definitely be "tears of happiness.
Mika Yamamori
Beyond this life andThis world I'll have it tilMy heart's content:The bright moon that passed overThe horizon before I had my fill.
Saigyō
He was grand in his convictions. He would stride forward to meet his own destruction.
Sōseki Natsume
Precipitate as weather, she appeared from somewhere then evaporated, leaving only memory.
Haruki Murakami
Everybody thinks I'm this delicate little girl.
Haruki Murakami
I mean, public libraries like this one were always short of money, so building even the tiniest of labyrinths had to be beyond their means.
Haruki Murakami
We're by-products of the mid-twentieth century", Oliver said. "Who isn't?
Ruth Ozeki
Loneliness becomes an acid that eats away at you.
Haruki Murakami
A fool sees himself as another, but a wise man sees others as himself.
Dōgen
Why... is human desire so unsatisfying?
Ai Yazawa
No matter how full one's head might be with the image of greatness, one was useless, I found out, unless one was a worthy man first.
Sōseki Natsume
In this world of ours, the sparrow must live like a hawk if he is to fly at all.
Hayao Miyazaki
Every life is precious. Please treasure each and every day, the present, the moment, and yourself.
Ichigo Takano
If you're that obsessed with someone, why would you kill her?Humans are full of contradictions.
Ai Yazawa
The value of a person shouldn't be decided by the judgements of other people. Kindness brings out the best in us all.
Naoki Higashida
I am single because I am allergic for cursing words and bad table manners
Hiroko Sakai
If the Emperor had not delivered his [15 August 1945] address urging the Japanese people to lay down their swords—if that speech had been a call instead for the Honorable Death of the Hundred Million—those people on that street in Sōshigaya probably would have done what they were told and died. And probably I would have done likewise. The Japanese see self-assertion as immoral and self-sacrifice as the sensible course to take in life. We were accustomed to this teaching and had never thought to question it.
Akira Kurosawa
But even so, every now and then I would feel a violent stab of loneliness. The very water I drink, the very air I breathe, would feel like long, sharp needles. The pages of a book in my hands would take on the threatening metallic gleam of razor blades. I could hear the roots of loneliness creeping through me when the world was hushed at four o'clock in the morning.
Haruki Murakami
There are going to be times when you learn more about the world you’re entering and feel defeated when you see the gap between the ideal and the reality… But that’s something we’ll all face. The people that face those obstacles and overcome them are people whose dreams come true.
Tsugumi Ohba
Whoever lives wins. Don't feel guilty about having survived. If you have time to be feeling guilty, work on living a day longer, a minute longer. And once in a while, remember the ones that died before you. That's good enough."Vol 1 Chap 4
Atsuko Asano
clouds very high looknot one word helped them get up there
Ikkyu
I kept staring at the moon. I'm not sure if its light was good or evil. I thought it might not be either. The moon just shines with the light of chaos. Mysteriously. Brightly. That must not be either good or evil. Just as the rules of this world are not all good.
Fuminori Nakamura
The woman had gasped beneath his heavy body. He rubbed against her, lubricated by the warm, sticky liquid, but as her body gradually grew cold, he felt as though they'd been glued together. She seemed to be see-sawing between agony and ecstasy, but finally Satake pressed his lips over hers to quiet the groans-of pain or pleasure-that were leaking from her mouth. He found the hole that he had made in her side and worked his finger deep into the opening. Blood was pumping from the wound, staining their sex a gruesome crimson. He wanted to get further inside, to melt into her. As he was about to come, he pulled his lips from her and she whispered in his ear: "I'm finished . . . finished." "I know," he'd said, and he could still hear the exact sound of his own voice.
Natsuo Kirino
With jealousy, a parasite takes root in your heart. It becomes a cancer that eats away at your soul.
Haruki Murakami
He did not care about titles and was proud to be a farmer beyond all else.
Tsuneichi Miyamoto
Women are all born with a special, independent organ that allows them to lie. This was Dr. Tokai's personal opinion. It depends on the person, he said about the kind of lies they tell, what situation they tell them in, and how the lies are told. But at a certain point in their lives, all women tell lies, and they lie about important things. They lie about unimportant things, too, but they also don't hesitate to lie about the most important things. And when they do, most women's expressions and voices don't change at all, since it's not them lysing, but this independent organ they're equipped with that's acting on its own. That's why - except for a few special cases - they can still have a clear conscience and never lose sleep over anything they say.
Haruki Murakami
In the world of art, all things are possible.--George from Paradise Kiss
Ai Yazawa
I'm not into abuse. It's a given that I'm gentle with you. You're a man, and not young anymore. - Hakuou
Bohra Naono
Ceaseless as the interminable voices of the bell-cricket, all night till dawn my tears flow.
Murasaki Shikibu