He was in a room of the Gesshuuji, which he had thought it would be impossible to visit. The approach of death had made the visit easy, had unloosed the weight that held him in the depths of being. It was even a comfort to think, from the light repose the struggle up the hill had brought him, that Kiyoaki, struggling against illness up that same road, had been given wings to soar with by the denial that awaited him.

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.

The only people in this world I really trust are my fans - even if they do forget you so fast.

There is no virtue in curiosity. In fact, it might be the most immoral desire a man can possess.

We live in an age in which there is no heroic death.

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.