Kobo Abe quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Kobo Abe

Kobo Abe Famous Quotes & Sayings

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His expression hardened. It was unpleasant to have feelings that he had been at pains to check aroused to no purpose

The world itself, like the mask, began to seem difficult to believe in, and I was stricken with an unutterable sense of loneliness.

A plausible rumor / Seems a lot more believable / Than the truth itself.

Mankind, which has always been a part of nature, has reached a point where it is too much for nature to accommodate.

The most frightening thing in the world is to discover the abnormal in that which is closest to us.

Green makes me think of silence, or maybe it's loneliness. I get the feeling of a terribly distant star.

Being free always involves being lonely.

The torment of imprisonment lies in not being able to escape from oneself at any time.

Nothing is so awkward as a demonstration of humanity by the enemy.

If there were no risk of a punishment, a getaway would lose the pleasure.

It would seem that marsupials are poor imitations of full-fledged mammals. Their inadequacy gives them a certain appeal; we're touched by it.

Compared to the you in my heart, the I in you is insignificant.

You can't force yourself into something you can't understand, you know.

It is manifestly pregnant and has a bulging white belly heavy with its load of kittens.

No matter how many faces I have, there is no changing the fact that I am me.

Everyone has his own philosophy that doesn't hold good for anybody else.

There are apparently two hypotheses about jealousy: that it is a product of civilization and that it is a basic instinct of animals.

What we mean when we say "terrible conditions" is conditions which we are aware of as being terrible.

Time cannot be spurred on like a horse.

You can only do what you can no matter how you try.

Only the happy ones return to contentment. Those who were sad return to despair.

Life wouldn't be easier or not easier. Aren't both generalizations logically impossible? Since there's no correlation, there can be no comparison.

Could having a face be such an important requirement? Was being seen the cost of the right to see?

When will you ever accept the true ugliness of health?

Something whose connection with human experience we cannot grasp is bound to be frightening.

Loneliness - since I was trying to escape it - was hell; and yet for the hermit who seeks it, it is apparently happiness.

It's a dangerous dog that doesn't bark.

Perhaps the act of writing is necessary when nothing happens.

But for some reason I have not yet become a fish. - The Box Man, p.36

-Well, what happens with the River of Hades in the end?
-Not a thing. It's an infernal punishment precisely because nothing happens.

He wanted to believe that his own lack of movement had stopped all movement in the world, the way a hibernating frog abolishes winter.

So nothing will ever be written down again. Perhaps the act of writing is necessary only when nothing happens.

The minute you begin to have doubts, the floor under your feet starts to shake.

Clinging to one's outward appearance interferes with living.

Perhaps it would be better to say that, rather than losing their passion, they had frozen it by over-idealizing it.

It was as if, without realizing it, I had been completely disarmed by her legs.

The future is forever a projection of the present.

Basically, there is nothing new in the behavior of monsters, for the monster himself is nothing more than an invention of his victims.

If one clung too closely to reality, the result might well be far from realistic.

Work seemed something fundamental for man, something which enabled him to endure the aimless flight of time.

A keener interest in trinkets of self-adornment than in people is a symptom of alienation.

The thorn of death falls from heaven, and its myriad forms leave us no room to move.

One measure of a civilization, in fact, is the percentage of misfits in its society.

Things have value Because somebody buys them, Because somebody pays money; If you can find a buyer, Even a lie is worth a thousand yen.

Loneliness was an unsatisfied thirst for illusion.

Rather than run aimlessly away, it would be best, I suppose, to face the situation squarely and get used to it once and for all.

Without the threat of punishment, there is no joy in flight.

Who could imagine that one could be so ridiculed, so humiliated by oneself?

Defeat begins with the fear that one has lost.

A crowd isn't formed after people gather; people gather after the crowd forms.

Do you shovel to survive, or survive to shovel?

It's a real handicap to have a face with shifty eyes.

When I was young, I could bounce back from things like a brand-new rubber ball.