Quotes from A Personal Matter

“One day Bird had approached his father with this question; he was six years old: Father, where was I a hundred years before I was born? Where will I be a hundred years after I die? Father, what will happen to me when I die? Without a word, his young father had punched him in the mouth, broke two of his teeth and bloodied his face, and Bird forgot the fear of death.”
― Kenzaburō Ōe, quote from A Personal Matter

“…I kept trying to run away. And I almost did. But it seems that reality compels you to live properly when you live in the real world.”
― Kenzaburō Ōe, quote from A Personal Matter

“Right now you're about the least attractive Bird I've ever seen...But I'll sleep with you just the same. I haven't been fastidious about morality since my husband committed suicide; besides, even if you intend to have the most disgusting kind of sex with me, I'm sure I'll discover something genuine in no matter what we do.”
― Kenzaburō Ōe, quote from A Personal Matter

“في هذا العصر الخاص بنا من الصعب الجزم بالقول بأن كونك تحيا أفضل من كونك لم تولد من الأصل.”
― Kenzaburō Ōe, quote from A Personal Matter

“You’re right about this being limited to me, it’s entirely a personal matter. But with some personal experiences that lead you way into a cave all by yourself, you must eventually come to a side tunnel or something opens on a truth that concerns not just yourself but everyone. And with that kind of experience at least the individual is rewarded for his suffering. Like Tom Sawyer! He had to suffer in a pitch-black cave, but at the same time he found his way out into the light he also found a bag of gold! But what I’m experiencing personally now is like digging a vertical mine shaft in isolation; it goes straight down to a hopeless depth and never opens on anybody else’s world. So I can sweat and suffer in that same dark cave and my personal experience won’t result in so much as a fragment of significance for anybody else. Hole-digging is all I’m doing, futile, shameful hole-digging; my Tom Sawyer is at the bottom of a desperately deep mine shaft and I wouldn’t be surprised if he went mad!”
― Kenzaburō Ōe, quote from A Personal Matter

“Once a person has been poisoned by self-deception, he can't make decisions about himself as neatly as all that.”
― Kenzaburō Ōe, quote from A Personal Matter

“يبدو أن الواقع يرغمك على أن تحيا بشكل صحيح عندما تعيش عالم الواقع.. أقصد، حتى لو سعيت أن تقع تحت طائلة الخداع، تجد في مكان ما على طول الخط أن اختيارك الوحيد هو أن تتجنبه.”
― Kenzaburō Ōe, quote from A Personal Matter

“I wonder if it's suffering."
"What, our generation?"
"The baby!”
― Kenzaburō Ōe, quote from A Personal Matter

“In this age of ours it's hard to say with certainty that having lived was better than not having been born in the first place.”
― Kenzaburō Ōe, quote from A Personal Matter

“ Once a person has been poisoned by self-deception, he can't make decisions about himself as neatly as all that," Himiko said, elaborating her friend's terrific prophecy; " You won't get a divorce Bird. You'll justify yourself like crazy, and try to salvage your married life by confusing the real issues. A decision like divorce is beyond you now, Bird, the poison has gone to work. And you know how the story ends ? Not even your own wife will trust you absolutely, and one day you'll discover for yourself that your entire private life is in the shadow of deception and in the end you'll destroy yourself. Bird, the first signs of self-destruction have appeared already!"
" But that's a blind alley! Leave it to you to paint the most hopeless future you can think of. " Bird lunged at jocularity...”
― Kenzaburō Ōe, quote from A Personal Matter

“Δεν ήμουν κατάλληλα προετοιμασμένος για το ρόλο του πατέρα κι έτσι δεν μπόρεσα ν' αποκτήσω ένα φυσιολογικό παιδί.”
― Kenzaburō Ōe, quote from A Personal Matter

“In silence, Bird reflected sadly on his wife's misconception of the nature of Swahili.”
― Kenzaburō Ōe, quote from A Personal Matter

“You’re a comfort to me,” he said simply. “I mean to be. I bet you haven’t been comforted once since all this began. And that’s not good, Bird. At a time like this you must be careful to have someone comfort you almost more than you need at least once. Otherwise you’ll find yourself helpless when the time comes to summon up your courage and break away from chaos.”
― Kenzaburō Ōe, quote from A Personal Matter

“… Bird’s waking dream was harsh, the reverse face of the innocent dream that had ushered him into sleep, a thing armored in burrs that inspired anguish. Sleep for Bird was a funnel which he entered through the wide and easy entrance and had to leave by the narrow exit.”
― Kenzaburō Ōe, quote from A Personal Matter

“Peril-ridden and fragile, the imperfect human body, what a shameful thing it was!”
― Kenzaburō Ōe, quote from A Personal Matter

“Μια μέρα ο Μπερντ, ήταν έξι χρόνων, είχε κάνει μια ερώτηση στον πατέρα του: "Πού βρισκόμουν, πατέρα, εκατό χρόνια πριν γεννηθώ; Πού θα βρίσκομαι εκατό χρόνια μετά το θάνατό μου; Τι θα απογίνω, πατέρα, όταν πεθάνω;" Χωρίς να του πει λέξη, ο νεαρός πατέρας του είχε δώσει μια γροθιά στο στόμα, του έσπασε δύο δόντια, το πρόσωπό του πλημμύρισε στο αίμα κι ο Μπερντ ξέχασε το φόβο του θανάτου. Τρεις μήνες αργότερα ο πατέρας του είχε φυτέψει μια σφαίρα στο κεφάλι του.”
― Kenzaburō Ōe, quote from A Personal Matter

“The baby was no longer on the verge of death; no longer would the sweet, easy tears of mourning melt it away as if it were a simple jelly. The baby continued to live, and it was oppressing Bird, even beginning to attack him. Swaddled in skin as red as shrimp which gleamed with the luster of scar tissue, the baby was beginning ferociously to live, dragging its anchor of a heavy lump. A vegetable existence? Maybe so; a deadly cactus.”
― Kenzaburō Ōe, quote from A Personal Matter

“Evening was deepening, and the fever of early summer, like the temperature of a dead giant, had dropped completely from the covering air.”
― Kenzaburō Ōe, quote from A Personal Matter

“Ωστόσο η σειρήνα ήταν γι' αυτόν ένα κινούμενο αντικείμενο: πλησίαζε από κάποια απόσταση, έμενε για λίγο και απομακρυνόταν. Τώρα η σειρήνα ήταν ένα με αυτόν, σαν αρρώστια που την κουβαλούσε μέσα του. Αυτή η σειρήνα δεν θα απομακρυνόταν ποτέ.”
― Kenzaburō Ōe, quote from A Personal Matter

“Σε ποια κατηγορία νεκρών θα κατέτασσες, θα κατηγορούσες και θα καταδίκαζες ένα μωρό με λειτουργίες φυτού, που είχε πεθάνει τη στιγμή που είχε γεννηθεί;”
― Kenzaburō Ōe, quote from A Personal Matter

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About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.