Oe Kenzaburo Quotes

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

You can't make a writer without first making a reader, and that's what my mother made me. — Richard Russo

The dead can survive as part of the lives of those that still live. — Kenzaburo Oe

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

It takes a person of great care and insight to watch for any abnormality in the green grass even while it grows abundantly and healthily. — Kenzaburo Oe

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

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

It's a little bit like what Akari said to his grandmother in Shikoku, during her final illness: 'Please cheer up and die! — Kenzaburo Oe

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

If you care about the people you work with then you work harder — Kristine Lilly

Peril-ridden and fragile, the imperfect human body, what a shameful thing it was! — Kenzaburo Oe

I don't think young people need to see the face of the deceased. — Kenzaburo Oe

In silence, Bird reflected sadly on his wife's misconception of the nature of Swahili. — Kenzaburo Oe

The writer's job is the job of a clown ... the clown who also talks about sorrow. — Kenzaburo Oe

He has a heart so huge, it's kept pumping, kept going long past endurance - even though life has bruised it to a pulp. — Nalini Singh

I wonder if it's suffering."
"What, our generation?"
"The baby! — Kenzaburo Oe

If I'm a monster then I want to be a real monster. I'll become a monster and explode. — Kenzaburo Oe

From the instant the atomic bomb exploded, it became the symbol of all human evil; it was a savagely primitive demon and a most modern curse. — Kenzaburo Oe

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

The way Japan had tried to build up a modern state modelled on the West was cataclysmic. — Kenzaburo Oe

The dream for any parent is you want to raise happy, healthy, responsible, compassionate, kind kids. We all have a responsibility to do that. — Gayle King

Hiroshima is like a nakedly exposed wound inflicted on all mankind. — Kenzaburo Oe

The fear of blindness created a moment's vacuum, serving as a relaxant for my exhausted and overheated brain. — Kenzaburo Oe

The Japanese chose the principle of eternal peace as the basis of morality for our rebirth after the War. — Kenzaburo Oe

After I got married, the first child born to us was mentally handicapped. — Kenzaburo Oe

Most people want to feel a part of the experience, — John C. Maxwell

I tend to process emotional stuff very, very slowly. — Michel Faber

We are much too tolerant of the moral aberration of statesmen and bureaucrats. — Kenzaburo Oe

... I kept trying to run away. And I almost did. But it seems that reality compels you to live properly when you live in the real world. — Kenzaburo Oe

In this age of ours it's hard to say with certainty that having lived was better than not having been born in the first place. — Kenzaburo Oe

Understanding comes hard to persons of high rank who are accustomed to phony lifestyles that involve no daily work. — Kenzaburo Oe