The Ghost in the Shell Quotes

“Even though you know whom to ask and, ultimately, already know the right answer, you understand nothing because you don't have the appropriate question ready... That sounds funny, but living is a string of such encounters.”
― Kafka Asagiri, The Ghost in the Shell: Five New Short Stories

“It's true of everyone. Isn't it? There is no firm, absolute self. People tailor their words to suit others, and the stage influences the role. The same light will cast different shadows.”
― Kafka Asagiri, The Ghost in the Shell: Five New Short Stories

“When doubts spiraled out of control, they easily undermined your sanity. Thus you had to rely on a steadfast reality most of the time. It was just like evidence when you came under suspicion. Your selfhood required something outside you that you couldn't revise even if you wanted to, a stern other.”
― Kafka Asagiri, The Ghost in the Shell: Five New Short Stories

“Can or cannot. Chance or necessity. Free will or fate (...) its easy to divide this world in half. Telling them apart afterward is what's difficult. The mirror and yourself. They ought to be different, but you can longer tell how.”
― Kafka Asagiri, The Ghost in the Shell: Five New Short Stories

“At least with humans, we need to pretend like our actions reflect our desires”
― Tow Ubukata, The Ghost in the Shell: Five New Short Stories

“It's not as if I ran away, either. But this world...is too vast if you're searching for something important. No rhyme or reason. True, it was like that from the beginning.”
― Kafka Asagiri, The Ghost in the Shell: Five New Short Stories

“Which signal works like a virus depends on which system is receiving the signal (...) To judge whether something is a virus, you need to know what you are, but that's becoming opaque.”
― Toh EnJoe, The Ghost in the Shell: Five New Short Stories

“A virus isn't really a virus in and of itself (...) Depending on how you look at it, an email is a virus. To the extent that they consist of a string of signs, they're the same. If an email doesn't wreck havoc, that's only because the recipient lacks the reaction system to react to the email. Try conceiving of human thought as something enabled by software (...) Say you're moved by an email. If that movement of your heart 'lay beyond expectations,' then the email worked on your emotions like a virus. Consider the Werther effect. A novel managed to increase the mortality rate. It's just that you can't trace the causality because the system is too complex.”
― Toh EnJoe, The Ghost in the Shell: Five New Short Stories

“Do harmless viruses count as 'viruses' fory ou, though? Most viruses are like that. Lethal ones attract attention, that's all. If they're getting detected and eradicated, then they're flops. The truth of the matter is that current security technology isn't something that humans can gauge in its entirety. That includes barriers.”
― Toh EnJoe, The Ghost in the Shell: Five New Short Stories