Japanese writer (1924-1993)
Clearly the opposing view that the writer precedes the work carries many dangers. By subordinating the work to the writer, one weakens the work's status as a product of society, overestimates the position of the writer and reinforces the notion that fiction is based on individualism.
KOBO ABE
The Frontier Within
The average woman was firmly convinced, it seemed, that she could not make a man recognize her worth unless every time she opened her legs she did so as if it were a scene in a soap opera.
KOBO ABE
The Woman in the Dunes
No matter how many faces I have, there is no changing the fact that I am me.
KOBO ABE
The Face of Another
The thorn of death falls from heaven, and its myriad forms leave us no room to move.
KOBO ABE
The Woman in the Dunes
People like me who lack something are liable to become spiteful critics.
KOBO ABE
The Face of Another
One could not do without repetition in life, like the beating of the heart, but it was also true that the beating of the heart was not all there was to life.
KOBO ABE
The Woman in the Dunes
He wanted to believe that his own lack of movement had stopped all movement in the world, the way a hibernating frog abolishes winter.
KOBO ABE
The Woman in the Dunes
We are awkward at espousing the illusions of our fellow men, but we do not want to be so stupid as to drop out of step.
KOBO ABE
The Face of Another
Loneliness was an unsatisfied thirst for illusion.
KOBO ABE
The Woman in the Dunes
Life is reduced to a bunch of fights over territory.
KOBO ABE
The Ark Sakura
Some people, when they're called before the police, like nothing better than to spill everything, fact and fiction alike, hoping to create a good impression.
KOBO ABE
Involuntary Homicide
When guilty shame wears a mask of curiosity, men are turned inside out, becoming strangers to themselves.
KOBO ABE
Secret Rendezvous
I personally feel that a box, far from being a dead end, is an entrance to another world. I don't know to where, but an entrance to somewhere, some other world.
KOBO ABE
The Box Man
Nevertheless, I cannot help feeling hope. It is not the same as being buried alive, and surely there is cause for hope. Isn't it true that the liabilities of an incomplete person--not being able, without the mask, to sing, to exchange blows with an enemy, to be a lecher, to dream--have become a common subject between me and others, and I alone am not guilty? Perhaps so. Perhaps so indeed.
KOBO ABE
The Face of Another
Only a shipwrecked person who has just escaped drowning could understand the psychology of someone who breaks out in laughter just because he is able to breathe.
KOBO ABE
The Woman in the Dunes
The only way to go beyond work is through work. It is not that work itself is valuable; we surmount work by work. The real value of work lies in the strength of self-denial.
KOBO ABE
The Woman in the Dunes
Everyone has his own philosophy that doesn't hold good for anybody else.
KOBO ABE
The Woman in the Dunes
It's a dangerous dog that doesn't bark.
KOBO ABE
The Woman in the Dunes
So nothing will ever be written down again. Perhaps the act of writing is necessary only when nothing happens.
KOBO ABE
The Face of Another
You don't need me. What you really need is a mirror. Because any stranger is for you simply a mirror in which to reflect yourself. I don't ever again want to return to such a desert of mirrors.
KOBO ABE
The Face of Another