Quotes from Y?ko Ogawa

Bet she looks as good inside as out – warm, red, inviting, all those little wrinkles tempting you deeper and deeper…

Lo que yo puedo hacer no es sino insignificante. Si puedo hacerlo yo, cualquiera puede hacerlo.

Excuse me,- I said, but my voice seemed to disappear into the dark. It was my body. In this gloomy, cramped box, I had eaten poison plants and died, hidden away from prying eyes. Crouching down at the door, I wept. For my dead self.

No one can erase the stories.

Important things remain important things, no matter how much the world changes.

Acaso piensas que no son más que unos papelitos con una emulsión química en una de sus caras? Si es así, te equivocas. Son mucho más que eso. Atesoran parte de la vida de las personas. Reflejan la futilidad de un instante; la luz, el viento y el aire de un paisaje; la sonrisa y el azoramiento de la persona fotografiada, y el gozo y amor de quien toma la foto por aquello que fotografía. Por eso precisamente hacemos fotografías y por eso deben conservarse.

Igual que algo que se hunde y reposa sobre el fondo de un lago al que no llega la luz, así escapan los recuerdos a nuestro alcance. Pero si alargas el brazo lo suficiente bajo la superficie del agua, tus dedos rozarán aquello que los ojos no ven. Cógelo y tráelo a la superficie, donde la luz volverá a iluminarlo.

Me alivia que sea la voz lo último que vaya a desaparecer —dije—. De esta forma, me veo con mayor predisposición a afrontar el instante final de la manera más tranquila y serena posible, sin tener que pasar por un calvario de dolor, sufrimiento y miseria

And what will happen if words disappear?" I

I stood at the window, where I once stood with my father looking out through binoculars, and even now small winged creatures occasionally flitted by, but they were no more than reminders that birds mean nothing at all to me anymore.

Na zalanym sÅ'oÅ"cem placu wszystko byÅ'o na swoim miejscu - nic doda?, nic uj??. Nawet uwa?ny obserwator uznaÅ'by, ?e oto jest Å›wiat, który nic jeszcze nie utraciÅ'.

and I found myself unable to resist turning around to see whether my footsteps were following me as I made my way across the field of white.

It's true, I know, that there are more gaps in the island than there used to be. When I was a child, the whole place seemed…how can I put this?…a lot fuller, a lot more real. But as things got thinner, more full of holes, our hearts got thinner, too, diluted somehow. I suppose that kept things in balance. And even when that balance begins to collapse, something remains. Which is why you shouldn't worry." He

So who was it? Who discovered zero?" "An Indian mathematician; we don't know his name. The ancient Greeks thought there was no need to count something that was nothing.

Le sens n'est pas très important. Ce qui l'est, c'est le récit caché au fond des mots. Maintenant, vous êtes en train d'essayer de le faire remonter. Votre cÅ"ur est en train de tenter de faire réapparaître des choses qui ont disparu.

Y el tiempo no obedece a órdenes

His face was so covered in wrinkles that it was impossible to tell from his expression whether he was laughing or crying. I pressed my hand against his back.

Döden försvann efter hand tillsammans med tiden allt längre bort i fjärran, och minnet var det enda som blev kvar, minnet som är det allra mest värdefulla vi har.

there was no shame in admitting you didn't have the answer, it was a necessary step toward the truth. It was as important to teach us about the unknown or the unknowable as it was to teach us what had already been safely proven.

unable to rid herself of her memories. Poor thing.

I ran my fingers over the lines of the formula, a long chain of numbers and symbols that flowed from one page to the next. As I followed the chain, link by link, the room faded and I found myself in a dark, silent place of numbers. But I felt no fear, certain in the knowledge that the Professor would guide me toward eternal, unchangeable truths.

If that were the case, they wouldn't be so difficult to understand and there'd be no need for mathematicians.

È proprio questo il senso di un esemplare: rinchiuderlo equivale a separarsene, così si compie il suo destino ultimo.

I'm thinking at the moment. Thinking. And to have my thought interrupted is like being strangled. Don't you know that barging in here when I'm with my numbers is as rude as interrupting someone in the bathroom?