Before I was a parent I was struck by Rilke, who, as you know, didn't go to his daughter's wedding because he was writing a poem that day. That was the ideal for artistic behavior in 1950. That's the way I wanted to live.

What you feel in Japanese poetry is always entirely longing.

I knew this friendship with myself couldn’t last forever.

In the society that has replaced the paternalistic society, women are able to develop their independent and social energies much more. That is good.

There are years from my childhood that I cannot remember and I cannot forget.

The body weeps the tears the eyes never shed.

In some Mayan villages they even have a stage beyond the elder that they call the Echo Person. They say that when an Echo Person, whether a man or a woman, speaks, the words echo both in this world and in the other world. That's why they are called Echo People.