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

The destination of the soul: this is what I, led on by Nils Holgersson, came to seek in the literature of Western Europe. I fervently hope that my pursuit, as a Japanese, of literature and culture will, in some small measure, repay Western Europe for the light it has shed upon the human condition.

I don't think young people need to see the face of the deceased.

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

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

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.

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