It is unfortunate for the gods that, unlike us, they cannot commit suicide.

- Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

Yes -- or rather, it's not so much that I want to die as that I'm tired of living.

- Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

I could have sworn that the man's eyes were no longer watching his daughter dying in agony, that instead the gorgeous colors of flames and the sight …

- Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

..he understood far more deeply than anyone else the loneliness that lurked beneath his jaunty mask.

- Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

I have no conscience at all -- least of all an artistic conscience. All I have is nerves.

- Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

He felt so lost, he said later, that the familiar studio felt like a haunted valley deep in the mountains, with the smell of rotting leaves, the spra…

- Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

I have heard unsavory rumors about you and the umbrella-maker's daughter

- Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

A man sometimes devotes his life to a desire which he is not sure will ever be fulfilled. Those who laugh at this folly are, after all, no more than …

- Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

Chained inside the carriage is a sinful woman. When we set the carriage afire, her flesh will be roasted, her bones will be charred: she will die an …

- Ryūnosuke Akutagawa