A Pale View of Hills Quotes

“As with a wound on one's own body, it is possible to develop an intimacy with the most disturbing of things”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“Memory, I realize, can be an unreliable thing; often it is heavily coloured by the circumstances in which one remembers, and no doubt this applies to certain of the recollections I have gathered here. ”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“It doesn’t matter how old someone is, it’s what they’ve experienced that counts. People can get to be a hundred and not experience a thing.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“The horror of that image has never diminished, but it has long ceased to be a morbid matter; as with a wound on one's own body, it is possible to develop an intimacy with the most disturbing of things.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“Sisters are supposed to be people you’re close to, aren’t they. You may not like them much, but you’re still close to them.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“Chess is all about maintaining coherent strategies. It’s about not giving up when the enemy destroys one plan but to immediately come up with the next. A game isn’t won and lost at the point when the king is finally cornered. The game's sealed when a player gives up having any strategy at all. When his soldiers are all scattered, they have no common cause, and they move one piece at a time, that’s when you’ve lost.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“it would have been so stupid, Niki went on, If you would just accepted everything the way it was and just stayed where you were. At least you made an effort.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“I’ve come to appreciate cooking over the years. It’s an art, I’m convinced of it, just as noble as painting or poetry. It’s not appreciated simply because the product disappears so quickly”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“I remember being taught all about how Japan was created by the gods, for instance. How we as a nation were divine and supreme. We had to memorize the text book word for word. Some things aren’t such a loss, perhaps.’ “But Jim, things aren’t as simple as that. You clearly don’t understand how such things worked. Things aren’t nearly as simple as you presume. We devoted ourselves to ensuring that proper qualities were handed down, that children grew up with the correct attitude to their country, to their fellows. There was a spirit in Japan once, it bound us all together. Just imagine what it must be like being a young boy today. He’s taught no values at school — except perhaps that he should selfishly demand whatever he wants out of life. He goes home and finds his parents fighting because his mother refuses to vote for his father’s party. What a state of affairs.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“The Americans, they never understood the way things were in Japan. Not for one moment have they understood. Their ways may be fine for Americans, but in Japan things are different, very different.” Ogata-San sighed again. “Discipline, loyalty, such things held Japan together once. That may sound fanciful, but it’s true. People were bound by a sense of duly. Towards one’s family, towards superiors, towards the country. But now instead there’s all this talk of democracy. You hear it whenever people want to be selfish, whenever they want to forget obligations.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“Keiko, unlike Niki, was pure Japanese, and more than one newspaper was quick to pick up on this fact. The English are fond of their idea that our race has an instinct for suicide, as if further explanations are unnecessary; for that was all they reported, that she was Japanese and that she had hung herself in her room.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“The English are fond of their idea that our race has an instinct for suicide, as if further explanations are unnecessary; for that was all they reported, that she was Japanese and that she had hung herself in her room.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“A friend of mine’s just had a baby,” Niki said. “She’s really pleased. I can’t think why. Horrible screaming thing she’s produced.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“In Japanese cities, much more so than in England, the restaurant owners, the teahouse proprietors, the shopkeepers all seem to will the darkness to fall; long before the daylight has faded, lanterns appear in the windows, lighted signs above doorways”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“I have found myself continually bringing to mind that picture — of my daughter hanging in her room for days on end. The horror of that image has never diminished, but it has long ceased to be a morbid matter; as with a wound on one’s own body, it is possible to develop an intimacy with the most disturbing of things.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“People can get to be a hundred and not experience a thing.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“What was I like in those days, Father? Was I like a mad person?’
‘You were very shocked, which was only to be expected. We were all shocked, those of us who were left.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“For the first few moves, you were planning ahead, I could see that. You actually had a strategy then. But as soon as I broke that down, you gave up, you began playing one move at a time. Don’t you remember what I always used to tell you? Chess is all about maintaining coherent strategies. It’s about not giving up when the enemy destroys one plan, but to immediately come up with the next. A game isn’t won and lost at the point when the king is finally cornered. The game’s sealed when a player gives up having any strategy at all. When his soldiers are all scattered, they have no common cause, and they move one piece at a time, that’s when you’ve lost.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“We call your son ‘Pharaoh’ in the office because he urges the rest of us to work like slaves while he does nothing himself.” “What nonsense,” said my husband. “It’s true. He orders us around like we’re his dogsbodies. Then he sits down and reads the newspaper.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“Nunca vi la habitación que Keiko tenía en Manchester, la habitación en que murió. Viniendo de una madre, estas ideas pueden resultar macabras, pero al enterarme de que se había suicidado, lo primero que me vino a la mente, antes incluso de asumir el disgusto, fue pensar cuánto tiempo había permanecido en ese estado antes de que la encontraran. Viviendo con su propia familia, pasaban días y días sin que nadie la viese, de modo que en una ciudad extraña donde nadie la conocía, era aún menos probable que la descubriesen inmediatamente. Más tarde, el juez dijo que había estado allí ‘durante varios días’. Fue la casera la que abrió la puerta, pensando que Keiko se había ido sin pagar el alquiler.

La imagen de mi hija ahorcada en su habitación durante días y días, me ha obsesionado continuamente. El horror que me produce esa imagen no ha disminuido, pero hace tiempo que ha perdido su carácter macabro. Del mismo modo que soportamos una herida en nuestro propio cuerpo, es posible llegar a hacer nuestras las cosas más perturbadoras.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“much with her.” Mrs Fujiwara’s”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“Ein Mensch kann irgendwo arbeiten und seine Steuern zahlen, aber am Ende will er dorthin zurück, wo er aufwachsen ist”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“The game's sealed when a player gives up having any strategy at all.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“About him and his wife voting for different parties. A few years ago that would have been unthinkable.” “No doubt.” “Quite extraordinary the things that happen now. But that’s what’s meant by democracy, I suppose.” Ogata-San gave a sigh. “These things we’ve learnt so eagerly from the Americans, they aren’t always to the good.” “No, indeed they’re not.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

“solemn.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills