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Quotes by Japanese Authors
"Waiting for your answer is one of the most painful things I have ever been through. At least let me know whether or not I hurt you."
"Still, this was on the order of a minor miracle, running across someone to whom you can express your feeling so clearly, so completely. Most people go their entire lives without meeting a person like that. It would have been mistake to label this "love". It was more like total empathy."
"Male social conditioning encourages boys and men to aim to bed as many women as possible....so much so, that their self esteem and self worth become intertwined with the number of sexual partners they have; and when that number is low or even zero, so too is their self-confidence."
"You have to dream intentionally. Most people dream a dream when they are asleep. But to be a writer, you have to dream while you are awake, intentionally."
"Christianity, to be effective in Japan, must change."
"Sacred blessings and divine opportunities appear in your life disguised as unforeseen changes and challenging circumstances."
"An abuser isn't abusive 24/7. They usually demonstrate positive character traits most of the time. That's what makes the abuse so confusing when it happens, and what makes leaving so much more difficult."
"Both men and women experience pressure to conform to social standards of attractiveness. Men to look strong and be tough, women to look pretty and soft. Men to be masculine, women to be feminine. Men get judged for being 'too feminine', women get criticized for being 'too masculine'. Gender policing affects us all."
"In truly deep darkness, all kinds of strange things were possible."
"The way you choose to think and speak about yourself (to yourself and others), IS A CHOICE! You may have spent your whole life talking about yourself in a negative way, but that doesn't mean you have to continue that path."
"There were times he thought it would have been far better to never have known. Yet he continued to return to his core principle: that, in every situation, knowledge was better than ignorance. However agonizing, it was necessary to confront the facts. Only through knowing could a person become strong."
"To wit, existence is communication and communication is existence."
"The world is a huge space, but the space that will take you in - and itdoesn't have to be very big - is nowhere to be found. You seek a voice, but what doyou get? Silence. You look for silence, but guess what? All you hear over and overand over is the voice of this omen. And sometimes this prophetic voice pushes asecret switch hidden deep inside your brain."
"The strength I'm looking for isn't the type where you win or lose. I'm not after a wall that'll repel power coming from outside. What I want us the kind of strength to be able to absorb that kind of power, to stand up to it. The strength to quietly endure things - unfairness, misfortunes, sadness, mistakes, misunderstandings."
"A person, who no matter how desperate the situation, gives others hope, is a true leader."
"You throw a stone into a deep pond. Splash. The sound is big, and it reverberates throughout the surrounding area. What comes out of the pond after that? All we can do is stare at the pond, holding our breath."
"Food fighters in Japan think of themselves as athletes. They have a higher recognition of the game and are constantly thinking about records. I probably won't continue for long because it puts pressure on the body. But I am at the age where I can perform my best."
"If you are not happy here and now, you never will be."
"If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking."
"It is only natural that for any statesman at the helm of any government the question of his country's security should be a concern of the utmost importance."
"I could never tell what was going on inside the pretty heads of the girls that Naoko brought along, and they probably couldn't understand me, either."
"Does that new man in your life call his ex 'a slut', 'a whore', 'a bitch', 'psycho' , 'crazy', 'a nutter' etc etc. Chances are, whatever he's calling his ex right now, he'll be calling you when things don't go his way. Be warned."
"It's not right for one friend to do all the giving and the other to do all the taking: that's not read friendship."
"A great revolution in just one single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a society and, further, will enable a change in the destiny of humankind."
"Has anyone ever noticed that when ethnic Australians excel in sport they are heralded 'Aussies'; but when something goes wrong they are thrown the 'go back to where you came from' line? WAKE UP RACISTS."
"Make a promise to yourself right now, that you will choose your thoughts and words wisely, that you will no longer use disempowered language about yourself, and nor will you ever negatively define yourself by what has occurred in your past."
"When the orbits of these two satellites of ours happened to cross paths, we could be together. Maybe even open our hearts to each other. But that was only for the briefest moment. In the next instant we'd be in absolute solitude. Until we burned up and became nothing."
"Find fault with thyself rather than with others."
"There's a need, too, for a special name in order to distinguish between this present world and the former world in which the police carried old-fashioned revolvers. ... 1Q84 - that's what I'll call this new world. Q is for 'question mark'. A world that bears a question."
"Every one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That's part of what it means to be alive."
"I really should have died then, Tsukuru often told himself. Then this world, the one in the here and now, wouldn't exist. It was a captivating, bewitching thought. The present world wouldn't exist, and reality would no longer be real. As far as this world was concerned, he would simply no longer exist-just as this world would no longer exist for him."
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