Either I'm funny or the world's funny. I don't know which. The bottle and lid don't fit. It could be the bottle's fault or the lid's fault. In either….

Which is why I am writing this book. To think. To understand. It just happens to be the way I'm made. I have to write things down to feel I fully com….

So many dreams, so many disappointments, so many promises. And in the end, they all just vanish..

If you try to use your head to think about things, people don't want to have anything to do with you.

The world would be a pretty dull place if it were made up only of the first-rate, right?.

Sometimes when I think of life, I feel like a piece of driftwood washed up on shore..

And, well, mine are kind of on the heavy side anyway. The first day or two, I don't want to do ANYTHING. Make sure you keep away from me then.' I'd l….

If writing novels is like planting a forest, then writing short stories is more like planting a garden. The two processes complement each other, crea….

When I open them, most of the books have the smell of an earlier time leaking out between the pages - a special odor of the knowledge and emotions th….

Whether it's good for anything or not, cool or totally uncool, in the final analysis what's most important is what you can't see but can feel in your….

Nothing in the real world is as beautiful as the illusions of a person about to lose consciousness..

I'm a writer, not a professional runner. It's fun and it helps me write. I need powerful concentration..

The rain that fell on the city runs down the dark gutters and empties into the sea without even soaking the ground.

I realize now that the reality of things is not something you convey to people but something you make..

In his or her own way, everyone I saw before me looked happy. Whether they were really happy or just looked it, I couldn't tell. But they did look ha….

Time passes slowly. Nobody says a word, everyone lost in quiet reading. One person sits at a desk jotting down notes, but the rest are sitting there ….

Writing a long novel is like survival training. Physical strength is as necessary as artistic sensitivity..

Reality was utterly coolheaded and utterly lonely..

If, as the dowager had said, we are nothing but gene carriers, why do so many of us have to lead such strangely shaped lives? Wouldn't our genetic pu….

In any case, suffice it to say I enjoyed hearing about faraway places. I had stocked up a whole store of these places, like a bear getting ready for ….

Listen - God only exists in people's minds. Especially in Japan, God's always been kind of a flexible concept. Look at what happened after the war. D….