52 Quotes by Kenzaburō Ōe

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

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

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

Психиатр, знаток своего дела, с полной определенностью заявил, что неосуществленная попытка самоубийства — это лишь крик о помощи. А вдруг, подумал Исана, я, сам замуровавший себя, подглядывая через бойницы в бетонных стенах, взываю о помощи к бескрайнему миру?

Once a person has been poisoned by self-deception, he can't make decisions about himself as neatly as all that.

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

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.

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

The people of Hiroshima went to work at once to restore human society in the aftermath of the great atomic flood. They were concerned to salvage their own lives, but in the process they also salvaged the souls of the people who have brought the atomic bomb.