km > km's Quotes

“Like love, life is beautiful because it has to end.”
― Genki Kawamura, 世界から猫が消えたなら [Sekai kara Neko ga Kietanara]

“As you go on with your life, always remember the things that are good in you. They're your gifts. As long as you have these things, you'll find happiness, and you'll make the people around you happy.”
― Genki Kawamura, 世界から猫が消えたなら [Sekai kara Neko ga Kietanara]

“Cats and humans have been partners for over ten thousand years. And what you realize when you've lived with a cat for a long time is that we may think we own them, but that's not the way it is. They simply allow us the pleasure of their company.”
― Genki Kawamura, 世界から猫が消えたなら [Sekai kara Neko ga Kietanara]

“I wonder why people always expect things from others that they themselves can’t or won’t do.”
― Genki Kawamura, 世界から猫が消えたなら [Sekai kara Neko ga Kietanara]

“With freedom comes uncertainty, insecurity, and anxiety. Human beings exchanged their freedom for the sense of security that comes from living by set rules and routines—despite knowing that they pay the cost of these rules and regulations with their freedom.”
― Genki Kawamura, If Cats Disappeared from the World

“Yeah, but just being alive doesn't mean all that much on its own. How you live is more important.”
― Genki Kawamura, 世界から猫が消えたなら [Sekai kara Neko ga Kietanara]

“It's a little magic trick you can play on yourself. Whenever you feel sad and lonely, just smile and close your eyes. Do it as many times as you have to.”
― Genki Kawamura, 世界から猫が消えたなら [Sekai kara Neko ga Kietanara]

“I got so caught up with all the little everyday things that I ended up wasting the time I could have spent on more important things. But the scariest thing is that I never even noticed that I was wasting my precious time.”
― Genki Kawamura, If Cats Disappeared from the World

“That's what the devil is about. I'm what you wanted to become but couldn't. I'm both the closest and the farthest things from who you are.”
― Genki Kawamura, If Cats Disappeared from the World

“I don’t know if I’m happy or unhappy. But there’s one thing I do know. You can convince yourself to be happy or unhappy. It just depends on how you choose to see things.”
― Genki Kawamura, 世界から猫が消えたなら [Sekai kara Neko ga Kietanara]

“The normal world has no room for exceptions and always quietly eliminates foreign objects. Anyone who is lacking is disposed of.

So that’s why I need to be cured. Unless I’m cured, normal people will expurgate me. Finally I understood why my family had tried so hard to fix me.”
― Sayaka Murata, Convenience Store Woman

“This society hasn't changed one bit. People who don't fit into the village are expelled: men who don't hunt, women who don't give birth to children. For all we talk about modern society and individualism, anyone who doesn't try to fit in can expect to be meddled with, coerced, and ultimately banished from the village.”
― Sayaka Murata, コンビニ人間 [Konbini ningen]

“When something was strange, everyone thought they had the right to come stomping in all over your life to figure out why. I found that arrogant and infuriating, not to mention a pain in the neck. Sometimes I even wanted to hit them with a shovel to shut them up, like I did that time in elementary school. But I recalled how upset my sister had been when I’d casually mentioned this to her before and kept my mouth shut.”
― Sayaka Murata, Convenience Store Woman

“You eliminate the parts of your life that others find strange--maybe that's what everyone means when they say they want to 'cure" me.”
― Sayaka Murata, コンビニ人間 [Konbini ningen]

“So the manual for life already existed. It was just that it was already ingrained in everyone’s heads, and there wasn’t any need to put it in writing. The specific form of what is considered an “ordinary person” had been there all along, unchanged since prehistoric times I finally realized.”
― Sayaka Murata, Convenience Store Woman

“The normal world has no room for exceptions and always quietly eliminates foreign objects. Anyone who is lacking is disposed of.”
― Sayaka Murata, Convenience Store Woman

“I find the shape of people’s eyes particularly interesting when they’re being condescending. I see a wariness or a fear of being contradicted or sometimes a belligerent spark ready to jump on any attack.”
― Sayaka Murata, Convenience Store Woman

“The sensation that the world is slowly dying feels good.”
― Sayaka Murata, Convenience Store Woman

“If all you ever see is reality, you just want to die.”
― Durian Sukegawa, Les délices de Tokyo

“People’s lives never stay the same colour forever. There are times when the colour of life changes completely.”
― Durian Sukegawa, Les délices de Tokyo

“I began to understand that we were born in order to see and listen to the world. And that's all this world wants of us. It doesn't matter that I was never a teacher or a member of the workforce, my life had meaning.”
― Durian Sukegawa, Sweet Bean Paste

“It’s my belief that everything in this world has its own language. We have the ability to open up our ears and minds to anything and everything. That could be someone walking down the street, or it could be the sunshine or the wind.”
― Durian Sukegawa, Sweet Bean Paste

“If all you ever see is reality, you just want to die. The only way to get over barriers, she said, is to live in the spirit of already being over them.”
― Durian Sukegawa, Sweet Bean Paste

“That's why I made confectionery. I made sweet things for all those who lived with the sadness of loss. And that's how I was able to live out my life.”
― Durian Sukegawa, Sweet Bean Paste

“Some lives are all too brief, while others are a continual struggle. I couldn’t help thinking that it was a brutal assessment of people’s lives to employ usefulness to society as a yardstick by which to measure their value.”
― Durian Sukegawa, Sweet Bean Paste

“The world hasn’t changed. It’s just as cruel as it always was.”
― Durian Sukegawa, Les délices de Tokyo

“I believed that a life has no value if a person is not a useful member of society. I was convinced that humans are born in order to be of service to the world and to others.”
― Durian Sukegawa, Les délices de Tokyo

“Are you telling me to fire someone who’s not sick, just because she was in the past?”
― Durian Sukegawa, Sweet Bean Paste

“When I was little I didn't have any special dream about what I wanted to do when I grew up. It was wartime, and we were all more preoccupied by a vague kind of anxiety about simply staying alive.”
― Durian Sukegawa, Sweet Bean Paste

“He has no idea this is just the beginning.”
― Freida McFadden, The Housemaid