52 Quotes by Kenzaburō Ōe

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

We naturally try to forget our personal tragedies, serious or trifling, as soon as possible (even something as petty as being scorned or disdained by a stranger on a street corner). We try not to carry these things over to tomorrow. It is not strange, therefore, that the whole human race is trying to put Hiroshima, the extreme point of human tragedy, completely out of mind.

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.

Manusia ialah khalifah; apabila kerajaan tidak bijak dan rakyat menderita, kenapa ia tidak membuat perubahan?

However, please allow me to say that the fundamental style of my writing has been to start from my personal matters and then to link it up with society, the state and the world.

By reading Huckleberry Finn I felt I was able to justify my act of going into the mountain forest at night and sleeping among the trees with a sense of security which I could never find indoors.

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

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

My observation is that after one hundred and twenty years of modernisation since the opening of the country, present-day Japan is split between two opposite poles of ambiguity.