9 Quotes by Yōko Tawada

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

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

Unable to turn back the clock, they let themselves be turned.

She's always hated good-byes and as she got older she hated them even more.

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.

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 had always found it unpleasant to have guests in my apartment. They filled up my rooms with strange sentences I would never have formulated in such a way. Today I found the sound of these sentences particularly unbearable. Sometimes I tried to follow only the sense of the conversation so as not to hear the sounds of the language. But they penetrated my body as though they were inseparable from the sense.

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.

Die Mauer in meinem Gedächtnis besteht weiter aus den bewaffneten Männern, die bereit waren, nach einer Anweisung auf Menschen zu schießen.Auf unserem wasserblauen Planeten werden immer wieder neue Mauern gebaut. Wo eine Mauer steht, ist das Leben auf beiden Seiten bedroht.