I have survived by representing these sufferings of mine in the form of the novel.

My observation is that after one hundred and twenty years of modernisation since the opening of the country, present-day Japan is split between two opposite poles of ambiguity.

The ambiguous orientation of Japan drove the country into the position of an invader in Asia.

After the end of the Second World War it was a categorical imperative for us to declare that we renounced war forever in a central article of the new Constitution.

It is the second job of literature to create myth. But its first job is to destroy it.

Paradoxically, the people and state of Japan living on such moral props were not innocent but had been stained by their own past history of invading other Asian countries.

There's no better reading experience than going to the place where a text was written.

The ideal teacher student relationship exists when the student is better than the teacher.

To be upright and to have an imagination: that is enough to be a very good young man.

However, please allow me to say that the fundamental style of my writing has been to start from my personal matters and then to link it up with society, the state and the world.

If any suffering was fruitless it was the agony of a hangover; what he suffered now could not expiate suffering of any other kind.

It is only when the mirror has not spoken to Chimpanzee in a plain language that it thinks it looks more better than the Gorilla

Why do you care?" His eyes looked casually over my shoulder, down the hallway then flicked back to me. "Are you jealous?" his left eyebrow rose sli

The point to remember is that what the government gives it must first take away.

In an economic recession, naturally, when you ask people to list their priorities, they're going to place a higher priority on the immediate economic situation.

The good particular men may do separately, in relieving the sick, is small, compared with what they may do collectively.

The man who loves his wife above all else on earth gains the freedom and power to pursue other noble, but lesser, loves.

There's no other like Leo.

The good news is that Jesus is praying for us. The bad news is that we are going to need it!

In matters of observation chance favors only the prepared mind. (not literal translation) - Dan's les champs de observation le hasard ne favorise que les esprits prepares.

Nature has come to a point where now, unless you take individual responsibility, you cannot grow.