When silence is prolonged over a certain period of time, it takes on new meaning.

When a captive lion steps out of his cage, he comes into a wider world than the lion who has known only the wilds. While he was in captivity, there were only two worlds for him - the world of the cage, and the world outside the cage. Now he is free. He roars. He attacks people. He eats them. Yet he is not satisfied, for there is no third world that is neither the world of the cage nor the world outside the cage.

Again and again, the cicada's untiring cry pierced the sultry summer air like a needle at work on thick cotton cloth.

I seemed like a baby bird keeping its truly innocent animal lusts hidden under its wing. I was being tempted, not by the desire of possession, but simply by unadorned temptation itself.

It seems to me that before the photograph can exist as art it must, by its very nature choose whether it is to be a record or a testimony.

Just let matters slide. How much better to accept each sweet drop of the honey that was Time, than to stoop to the vulgarity latent in every decision. However grave the matter at hand might be, if one neglected it for long enough, the act of neglect itself would begin to affect the situation, and someone else would emerge as an ally. Such was Count Ayakura's version of political theory.

For an artist to do creative work, he needs at once physical health and some physiomental ill health. He needs both serenity and gloom.