25 Quotes by Takashi Hiraide

Having played to her heart's content, Chibi would come inside and rest for a while. When she began to sleep on the sofa--like a talisman curled gently in the shape of a comma and dug up from a prehistoric archaeological site--a deep sense of happiness arrived, as if the house itself had dreamed this scene.

Observation is at its core an expression of love which doesn’t get caught up in sentiment.

By late autumn the yard would grow thick with fallen leaves, causing the landlady to heave many deep sighs.

Below the zelkova tree time had stopped. At the foot of a little pine tree in its shadow, the most important of gems lay sleeping. Perhaps a window with a distant view of that place would allow us to yield to the natural process of forgetting.

The noble-minded do not thrust others aside in order to make their way in the world. But then they themselves are ultimately thrust aside by the advancing tide.

The word “to grieve” or “lament” in Japanese is actually made up of two different kanji characters – “sadness” and “resentment.

For me, Chibi is a friend with whom I share an understanding, and who just happens to have taken on the form of a cat.

The act of writing also crosses borders indiscriminately.

Looking back on it now, I’d say one’s thirties are a cruel age. At this point, I think of them as a time I whiled away unaware of the tide that can suddenly pull you out, beyond the shallows, into the sea of hardship, and even death.