Kobo Abe Quotes

• Do you shovel to survive, or survive to shovel?

  Kobo Abe

  Shovels

  55 Copy quote

• Defeat begins with the fear that one has lost.

  Kobo Abe

  Defeat, Lost

  Kobo Abe (2011). “The Woman in the Dunes”, p.124, Vintage

  40 Copy quote

• Suicide is an escape from life. What is life? An escape from death. This means that each of us must die twice. There is the death waiting for us ahead, and the death that comes pursuing from behind.... Once you are free at least from the death that comes pursuing you, you can relax and enjoy life as you go along.

  Kobo Abe

  Suicide, Mean, Enjoy Life

  22 Copy quote

• Things have value Because somebody buys them, Because somebody pays money; If you can find a buyer, Even a lie is worth a thousand yen.

  Kobo Abe

  Lying, Pay, Buyers

  12 Copy quote

• Without the threat of punishment, there is no joy in flight.

  Kobo Abe

  Punishment, Joy, Flight

  "No escape" by David Mitchell, www.theguardian.com. October 7, 2006.

  21 Copy quote

• It's a dangerous dog that doesn't bark.

  Kobo Abe

  Dog, Bark, Dangerous

  18 Copy quote

• Perhaps the act of writing is necessary when nothing happens.

  Kobo Abe

  Writing, Happens, Things Happen

  12 Copy quote

• Mankind, which has always been a part of nature, has reached a point where it is too much for nature to accommodate.

  Kobo Abe

  Too Much, Mankind, Accommodate

  20 Copy quote

• A tower of illusion, all of it, made of illusory bricks and full of holes. If life were made up only of imporant things, it really would be a dangerous house of glass, scarcely to be handled carelessly. But everyday life was exactly like the headlines. And so everybody, knowing the meaninglessness of existence, sets the centre of his compass at his own home.

  Kobo Abe

  Home, Knowing, Glasses

  Kobo Abe (2011). “The Woman in the Dunes”, p.94, Vintage

  18 Copy quote

• When I look at small things, I think I shall go on living: drops of rain, leather gloves shrunk by being wet... When I look at something too big, I want to die: the Diet Building, or a map of the world.

  Kobo Abe

  Rain, Thinking, Looks

  27 Copy quote

• The minute you begin to have doubts, the floor under your feet starts to shake.

  Kobo Abe

  Feet, Doubt, Minutes

  15 Copy quote

• The most frightening thing in the world is to discover the abnormal in that which is closest to us.

  Kobo Abe

  Abnormal, World, Frightening

  15 Copy quote

• Green makes me think of silence, or maybe it's loneliness. I get the feeling of a terribly distant star.

  Kobo Abe

  Stars, Loneliness, Thinking

  20 Copy quote

• A plausible rumor / Seems a lot more believable / Than the truth itself.

  Kobo Abe

  Rumor, Plausible, Seems

  13 Copy quote

• Nature with her wealth of birds and flowers, Has in her heart a place for every weed; For her quick eyes require no microscope To note the varied wonders and delights That the Creator's humblest works possess.

  Kobo Abe

  Weed, Nature, Flower

  16 Copy quote

• Work seemed something fundamental for man, something which enabled him to endure the aimless flight of time.

  Kobo Abe

  Work, Men, Flight

  Kobo Abe (2011). “The Woman in the Dunes”, p.158, Vintage

  16 Copy quote

• Many people ask why a writer commits suicide. But I think that people who ask don't know the vanity and the nothingness of writing. I think it is very usual and natural for a writer to commit suicide, because in order to keep on writing he must be a very strong person.

  Kobo Abe

  Suicide, Strong, Writing

  12 Copy quote

• Time cannot be spurred on like a horse.

  Kobo Abe

  Time, Horse

  Kobo Abe (2011). “The Woman in the Dunes”, p.125, Vintage

  13 Copy quote

• Far happier he, who, young and full of pride And radiant with the glory of the sun, Leaves earth before his singing time is done. All wounds of Time the graveyard flowers hide, His beauty lives, as fresh as when he died.

  Kobo Abe

  Death, Flower, Pride

  14 Copy quote

• Yet there seemed to be some truth in the law of probability, according to which the chance of success is directly proportionate to the number of repetitions.

  Kobo Abe

  Law, Numbers, Chance

  13 Copy quote

• Year after year students tumble along like the waters of a river. They flow away, and only the teacher is left behind, like some deeply buried rock at the bottom of the current.

  Kobo Abe

  Teacher, Teaching, Rocks

  Kobo Abe (2011). “The Woman in the Dunes”, p.80, Vintage

  9 Copy quote

• Something whose connection with human experience we cannot grasp is bound to be frightening.

  Kobo Abe

  Connections, Human Experience, Frightening

  Kobo Abe (1970). “Inter Ice Age 4”

  7 Copy quote

• When I was young, I could bounce back from things like a brand-new rubber ball.

  Kobo Abe

  Balls, Rubber, Youth

  12 Copy quote

• The thorn of death falls from heaven, and its myriad forms leave us no room to move.

  Kobo Abe

  Moving, Fall, Heaven

  Kobo Abe (2011). “The Woman in the Dunes”, p.138, Vintage

  7 Copy quote

• Some people, when they're called before the police, like nothing better than to spill everything, fact and fiction alike, hoping to create a good impression.

  Kobo Abe

  People, Police, Fiction

  4 Copy quote

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