Quotes by Kenzaburō Ōe

“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.”

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

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

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

“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 salvag...”

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

“For ten years after the atomic bomb was dropped there was so little public discussion of the bomb or of radioactivity that even the Chugoku Shinbun, the major newspaper of the city where the atomic...”

“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 c...”

“Once a person has been poisoned by self-deception, he can't make decisions about himself as neatly as all that," Himiko said, elaborating her friend's terrific prophecy; " You won't get a divorce B...”

“When the Russian delegate this summer indicated the Soviet Union's interest in sending medical equipment, Dr Shigeto went right away to see the delegate and settle the matter tactfully. He is caref...”

“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.”