As you can imagine, those who had fallen this far had been so worn down by their tortures in the seven other hells that they no longer had the strength to cry out.
Ryūnosuke AkutagawaI have no conscience at all -- least of all an artistic conscience. All I have is nerves.
Ryūnosuke AkutagawaI could wish for nothing more than to die for a childish dream in which I truly believed.
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa..he understood far more deeply than anyone else the loneliness that lurked beneath his jaunty mask.
Ryūnosuke AkutagawaHe felt so lost, he said later, that the familiar studio felt like a haunted valley deep in the mountains, with the smell of rotting leaves, the spray of a waterfall, the sour fumes of fruit stashed away by a monkey; even the dim glow of the master's oil lamp on its tripod looked to him like misty moonlight in the hills.
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa