Quotes from Y?ko Ogawa

I couldn't reach him from here even if I tried.

The mathematical order is beautiful precisely because it has no effect on the real world. Life isn't going to be easier, nor is anyone going to make a fortune, just because they know something about prime numbers. Of course, lots of mathematical discoveries have practical applications, no matter how esoteric they may seem. …. But those things aren't the goal of mathematics. The only goal is to discover the truth.

The evening sky seemed so close you could touch it, and at that moment, as if they had been awaiting our arrival, the lights came on. The stadium looked like a spaceship descended from the heavens.

I remember hearing a saying long ago: 'Men who start by burning books end by burning other men,' " I said.

Formless days passed one after the other, as if swollen into an indistinguishable mass by the damp weather.

But they're invisible, aren't they? And no matter how wonderful the memory, it vanishes if you leave it alone, if no one pays attention to it. They leave no trace, no evidence that they ever existed. But I suppose you're right when you say we should do everything we can to bring back memories of the things that have disappeared.

I couldn't possibly say," he said. "If you read a novel to the end, then it's over. I would never want to do something as wasteful as that. I'd much rather keep it here with me, safe and sound, forever.

The memories of him as a small boy and memories from my days at the dormitory seemed to bleed together like the shades in a watercolor painting

Somehow, I have the feeling my voice may come back one day if I study the letters imprinted on the used ribbon.

Someone once wrote that worrying is the hardest thing about being a parent.

I wondered why ordinary words seemed so exotic when they were used in relation to numbers. Amicable numbers or twin primes had a precise quality about them, and yet they sounded as though they'd been taken straight out of a poem.

Whether at his desk or at the dinner table, when he talked about numbers, primes were most likely to make an appearance. At first, it was hard to see their appeal. They seemed so stubborn, resisting division by any number but one and themselves. Still, as we were swept up in the Professor's enthusiasm, we gradually came to understand his devotion, and the primes began to seem more real, as though we could reach out and touch them.

If he had attacked me outright, I might have been able to defend myself. Instead, he exposed my secret as if offering himself to me. I was left mute, listening to my heart pounding in my chest.

Solving a problem for which you know there's an answer is like climbing a mountain with a guide, along a trail someone else has laid.

I'd imagine you'd be uncomfortable, with your heart full of so many forgotten things.

I sometimes wonder what was disappeared first—among all the things that have vanished from the island.

A heart has no shape, no limits. That's why you can put almost any kind of thing in it, why it can hold so much. It's much like your memory, in that sense.

Men who start by burning books end by burning other men

Memories are a lot tougher than you might think. Just like the hearts that hold them.

My memories don't feel as though they've been pulled up by the root. Even if they fade, something remains. Like tiny seeds that might germinate again if the rain falls. And even if a memory disappears completely, the heart retains something. A slight tremor or pain, some bit of joy, a tear.

A heart has no shape, no limits. That's why you can put almost any kind of thing in it, why it can hold so much. It's much like your memory, in that sense.

But as things got thinner, more full of holes, our hearts got thinner, too, diluted somehow. I suppose that kept things in balance.

he has never read a single page of any of my books. Once, when I told him I'd love to know what he thinks of them, he demurred. "I couldn't possibly say," he said. "If you read a novel to the end, then it's over. I would never want to do something as wasteful as that. I'd much rather keep it here with me, safe and sound, forever.

I don't know. Maybe there's a place out there where people whose hearts aren't empty can go on living.