Quote by Kenzaburō Ōe

“Bird, hesitating, recalled a line from the English textbook he was reading with his students; a young American was speaking angrily: Are you kidding…

— Kenzaburo Oe

“In introducing himself, he had said, "I'm the father," and the doctors had winced. Because something else must have echoed in their ears- I'm…

— Kenzaburo Oe

“I thought about death and was gripped by feelings which choked my chest and made my throat dry, a sudden pushing and shoving in…

— Kenzaburō Ōe

To be upright and to have an imagination: that is enough to be a very good young man.

— Kenzaburo Oe

The writer's job is the job of a clown …the clown who also talks about sorrow.

— Kenzaburo Oe

If any suffering was fruitless it was the agony of a hangover; what he suffered now could not expiate suffering of any other kind.

— Kenzaburo Oe

The ambiguous orientation of Japan drove the country into the position of an invader in Asia.

— Kenzaburo Oe

“If I'm a monster then I want to be a real monster. I'll become a monster and explode.”

— Kenzaburō Ōe

Paradoxically, the people and state of Japan living on such moral props were not innocent but had been stained by their own past history…

— Kenzaburo Oe

It is the second job of literature to create myth. But its first job is to destroy it.

— Kenzaburo Oe

In the recent years there have been criticisms levelled against Japan suggesting that she should offer more military forces to the United Nations forces…

— Kenzaburo Oe

There's no better reading experience than going to the place where a text was written.

— Kenzaburo Oe