Quotes from Y?ko Tawada

Her arms and legs were incapable of working in unison toward a single goal, they couldn't all follow the same directions at once. Sasha pressed Sonia's arms and legs together and called her name a few times, as though the name could bring harmony to her limbs.

You needn't be afraid of them. When you see them, just remember that you, too, like all other human beings, were once a monster in one of your previous lives. Neither hate them nor do battle with them, just continue on your way.

Little by little I was starting to like Hiruko, which surprised me. "And are you a Buddhist?" I asked her. "No, I'm not a Buddhist. I'm a linguist." "Is that a religion?" "Not really, but languages can make people happy, and show them what's beyond death.

I instantly recognized his true masculinity in the fact that he had no cavities.

Nevertheless, to any employee, work is to some degree a place where strangers pull at you from right, left, above and below, pinching, rubbing, and generally making a mess of you from morning to night.

This word natsukashii seemed to be made of mist, a mist I was wandering through with unsteady steps.

It must be the same for you. Living in Arles is probably like living under the sea, in the Ryügü Palace. You have exotic women to dance for you, and you get all dreamy, smelling flowers you never knew existed, and drinking in the colors of foreign roof tiles, so you never get bored, but then one day you suddenly realise you're outside the current of time, and you want to go home.

All the eyes flew away from me like mayflies, I couldn't catch a single one

IT isn't good to talk much about the weather - weather is a highly personal matter

minorities granted a crumb of political autonomy in exchange for providing an optical simulation of cultural diversity in their country of residence

Sometimes other people's skulls look transparent. At such moments I fall in love.

At that moment, the thing Knut had been perceiving as "time" melted away. Because starting with this moment, he no longer had any time to think about time.

Paperback novelettes with faded covers still bore coffee stains and greasy fingerprints from their first readers. The books can never forget their readers, though the readers have no doubt forgotten all about the books' contents.

I always feel myself being thrust back into loneliness when someone tells me it's cold on a hot day. It isn't good to talk so much about the weather — weather is a highly personal matter, and communication on the subject inevitably fails.

Being able to see the end of anything gave him a tremendous sense of relief. As a child he had assumed the goal of medicine was to keep bodies alive forever; he had never considered the pain of not being able to die.

I abhor the human stupidity and vanity that takes pride in forcing tigers, lions, and leopards to sit nicely side by side. It reminds me of the government choreography that displays brightly garbed minorities in a parade, minorities granted a crumb of political autonomy in exchange for providing an optical simulation of cultural diversity in their country of residence. But wild animals (as opposed to humans) form groups according to species to enjoy specific benefits.

Mold started to grow in my ears because no one ever spoke to me

Often it sickened me to hear people speak their native tongues fluently. It was as if they were unable to think and feel anything but what their language so readily served up to them.

I think hunting used to be important for human survival. Thats no longer the case, but they can't stop. A human being, perhaps, is made up of many nonsensical movements. But they've forgotten the movements necessary for life. These humans are manipulated by what remains of their memories.

On his youth, Yoshiro had prided himself of always having an answer ready when someone asked who his favorite composer or designer was, or what kind of wine he preferred. Confident in his good taste, he had poured time and money into surrounding himself with things that would show it off. Now he no longer felt any need to use taste as the bricks and mortar fora structure called «individuality».

The concept of human rights had been invented by people who were thinking only of human beings

The tales told by the dead are fundamentally different, because their stories are not told to conceal their wounds.

With children like this having children of their own, it was no wonder the world was full of children.

Your eyes aren't empty mirrors - You reflect human beings. I hope this doesn't make you mortally unhappy.