Japanese writer (1924-1993)
Time cannot be spurred on like a horse.
KOBO ABE
The Woman in the Dunes
The most frightening thing in the world is to discover the abnormal in that which is closest to us.
KOBO ABE
Nothing is so awkward as a demonstration of humanity by the enemy.
KOBO ABE
Secret Rendezvous
When I was young, I could bounce back from things like a brand-new rubber ball.
KOBO ABE
The Ghost is Here
Do you shovel to survive, or survive to shovel?
KOBO ABE
The Woman in the Dunes
Whatever you say or do, nobody's going to recognize the Kingdom of Quintessential Castoffs as a sovereign nation.
KOBO ABE
The Ark Sakura
Man's being is the night and the night is man's being.
KOBO ABE
The Frontier Within
There wasn't a single item of importance [in the newspaper]. A tower of illusion, all of it, made of illusory bricks and full of holes.
KOBO ABE
The Woman in the Dunes
A tower of illusion, all of it, made of illusory bricks and full of holes. If life were made up only of imporant things, it really would be a dangerous house of glass, scarcely to be handled carelessly. But everyday life was exactly like the headlines. And so everybody, knowing the meaninglessness of existence, sets the centre of his compass at his own home.
KOBO ABE
The Woman in the Dunes
Year after year students tumble along like the waters of a river. They flow away, and only the teacher is left behind, like some deeply buried rock at the bottom of the current.
KOBO ABE
The Woman in the Dunes
Compared to the you in my heart, the I in you is insignificant.
KOBO ABE
The Box Man
Yet there seemed to be some truth in the law of probability, according to which the chance of success is directly proportionate to the number of repetitions.
KOBO ABE
The Woman in the Dunes
Love strips the mask from each of us, and we must endeavor for those we love to put the mask on so that it can be taken off again. For if there is no mask to start with, there is no pleasure in removing it.
KOBO ABE
The Face of Another
Things have value because somebody buys them, because somebody pays money; if you can find a buyer, even a lie is worth a thousand yen.
KOBO ABE
The Ghost is Here
Work seemed something fundamental for man, something which enabled him to endure the aimless flight of time.
KOBO ABE
The Woman in the Dunes
Still, the one who best understands the significance of light is not the electrician, not the painter, not the photographer, but the man who lost his sight in adulthood. There must be the wisdom of deficiency in deficiency, just as there is the wisdom of plenty in plenty.
KOBO ABE
The Face of Another
What contemporary society needs is essentially abstract human relationships, so that even faceless people like me can earn their wages with no interference.
KOBO ABE
The Face of Another
It would seem that marsupials are poor imitations of full-fledged mammals. Their inadequacy gives them a certain appeal.
KOBO ABE
Kangaroo Notebook
Now that you are dead, you are splendid. Photographs of people who have just died are worth twenty percent more, and for suicides there is an additional five percent. Now that you are dead you are much in demand.
KOBO ABE
The Ghost is Here
Green makes me think of silence, or maybe it's loneliness. I get the feeling of a terribly distant star.
KOBO ABE
The Green Stockings