Life Ceremony Quotes

“I mean, normal is a type of madness, isn't it? I think it's just that the only madness society allows is called normal.”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“Everyone keeps telling
little lies, and that’s how the mirage is created. That’s why it’s beautiful—because it’s a momentary make-believe world.”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“I simply spoke in a way that I would be liked within whichever community I happened to be in. I responded to wherever I was in order to adapt to it. I was just like a robot.”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“Instinct doesn’t exist. Morals don’t exist. They were just fake
sensibilities that came from a world that was constantly transforming.”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“私たちはコミュニティの中で「呼応」を繰り返し、自身をキャラクター化させ、そのキャラクターに従うようになる。「本当の自分」なんてものは、誰にも存在しないのではないか、と考えるようになった。”
― Sayaka Murata, 生命式

“Sanae lived in a trim little apartment building crammed into a small space in a major office district. As she walked in her high heels between the rows of buildings, she couldn’t shake the sensation that she, too, was one of these buildings.”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“本能なんてこの世にはないんだ。倫理だってない。変容し続けている世界から与えられた、偽りの感覚なんだ。”
― Sayaka Murata, 生命式

“だって、正常は発狂の一種でしょう？この世で唯一の、許される発狂を正常と呼ぶんだって、僕は思います。”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“If you had the intention to live a decent life, you could do so anywhere.”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“If they tried it, the memories of the wild rooted in their flesh would come back to them, and they would discover that eating the city like this would connect the earth between the gaps in the concrete and their own body.”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“Everyone always says that things like common sense or instinct or morals are carved in stone. But that’s not true- actually, they’re always changing.”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“We humans were only here for a moment, the time it takes to blink in the flow of time experienced by the big lump we call Earth. In that enormously long moment, we continued to evolve and transform. I was here in a momentary scene of the never-ending kaleidoscope”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“I mean, normal is a type of madness, isn't it? I think it's just that the only madness society allows is called normal”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“Normal is a type of madness, isn’t it? I think it’s just that the only madness society allows is called normal.”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“Sexual orientation is becoming much more diverse," she went on. "Is a man attracted to young girls going to get an erection with his thirty-five-year-old wife? Can a woman who only gets aroused by two-dimensional men have sex with a living three-dimensional man without pain?”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“Walking like this, feeling like a feral human, even machines and buildings were warm to the touch, and some emitted sounds and vibrations. Their presence was similar to the sounds emitted by life-forms in the forest”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“We may be headed in a dangerous direction, but the vague conclusion seemed to be that we wouldn’t know unless we tried”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“Dyed by the colors of the ever-changing world, I became part of the tint of this unique moment.”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“I mean, normal is a type of madness, isn’t it? I think it’s just that the only madness society allows is called normal.”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“She could see the reflection of light on the saliva inside the girl’s mouth when she sighed. Life-forms were a spring from which all kinds of fluids gushed forth. Saliva was one, and urine and blood and other liquids, and around them hung the rank smell of air permeated with the stench of inner organs that erupted from the mouth. Each of those things was totally lifeless when emitted by Sanae, however.”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“The seaside is great. Humans have lived by the ocean since ancient times, so our DNA responds to it fondly. That’s what he’d said at the time.”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“Nowadays, your partner is not necessarily a sex object - this is a wonderful advancement.”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“I'm seeking an amicable daily routine with someone I get along well with, like brother and sister, without being a slave to sex”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“Even though the physical body was the same, the type of alcohol had a different effect depending on the character.”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“Submerged in air full of sighs released from numerous mouths,”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“Our pleasure is ours, your pleasure is yours, we discover our own pleasure, and we don’t betray our own pleasure, we don’t betray our own bodies”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“This is exactly what I wanted to see today. Everyone thinks the food other people eat is disgusting, and that's the way it should be... How about a toast? To all our uniquely disgusting foods!”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“Do you think we’re weird?” He shook his head. “No, I don’t. I mean, normal is a type of madness, isn’t it? I think it’s just that the only madness society allows is called normal.”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“I really like Disneyland, you know.” “Ugh.” I screwed up my face. “I hate it.” “I thought so.” He chuckled. As always when he laughed, his small round eyes went all black and his long eyelashes fluttered. “Nobody ever mentions the person inside the cartoon-character costume, do they? Everyone’s lying a bit. That’s what makes it a dream country. Our world isn’t any different, is it? Everyone keeps telling little lies, and that’s how the mirage is created. That’s why it’s beautiful—because it’s a momentary make-believe world.”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

“The world here and now is just a momentary tint.”
― Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony