True religion should be able to respond to the dark melodies, the faulty and hideous sounds that echo from the heart of men.

- Shusaku Endo

Christ did not die for the good and beautiful. It is easy enough to die for the good and beautiful; the hard thing is to die for the miserable and co…

- Shusaku Endo

Over the years I have forged intimate familial ties with these characters, who are reflections of a portion of myself. Consequently, even a character…

- Shusaku Endo

Sin, he reflected, is not what it is usually thought to be; it is not to steal and tell lies. Sin is for one man to walk brutally over the life of an…

- Shusaku Endo

The smell of death was thick in the city of Vara?asi. And in Tokyo as well. And yet the birds blissfully sang their songs.

- Shusaku Endo

Christianity, to be effective in Japan, must change.

- Shusaku Endo

I became a Catholic against my will.

- Shusaku Endo

A person never knows their own true face. Everybody thinks that the phoney, posed social mask they wear is their real face.

- Shusaku Endo

Every weakness contains within itself a strength.

- Shusaku Endo