Understanding comes hard to persons of high rank who are accustomed to phony lifestyles that involve no daily work.

I have survived by representing these sufferings of mine in the form of the novel.

After the end of the Second World War it was a categorical imperative for us to declare that we renounced war forever in a central article of the new Constitution.

Fundamentally a good author has his or her own sense of style. There is a natural, deep voice, and that voice is present from the first draft of a manuscript. When he or she elaborates on the initial manuscript, it continues to strengthen and simplify that natural, deep voice.

The Japanese chose the principle of eternal peace as the basis of morality for our rebirth after the War.

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

I think I am doing my works to link myself, my family, with society — with the cosmos. To link me with my family to the cosmos, that is easy, because all literature has some mystic tendency. So when we write about our family, we can link ourselves to the cosmos.