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Ruth Ozeki Biography

Ruth Ozeki is an American-Canadian author, filmmaker and Zen Buddhist priest. Her books and films, including the novels My Year of Meats (1998), All Over Creation (2003), and A Tale for the Time Being (2013), seek to integrate personal narrative and social issues, and deal with themes relating to science, technology, environmental politics, race, religion, war and global popular culture. Her novels have been translated into over thirty languages. She is a Professor of English Language and Literature at Smith College.

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Ruth Ozeki Quotes

My mind is like a gyre and odd juxtapositions happen.

Happen, Juxtaposition, Juxtapositions, Like, Mind, Odd

No matter how much bullying they inflict on my body, as long as I have this hope, I can endure any pain.

Bullying, Endure, Hope, Inflict, Inspiration, Pain

You never know who it's going to be, or what they'll bring, but whatever it is, it's always exactly what is needed.

Bring, Exactly, Know, Knows, Needed

She sat back on her heels and nodded. The thought experiment she proposed was certainly odd, but her point was simple. Everything in the universe was constantly changing, and nothing stays the same, and we must understand how quickly time flows by if we are to wake up and truly live our lives. That’s what it means to be a time being, old Jiko told me, and then she snapped her crooked fingers again. And just like that, you die.

Back, Mean, Point, Simple, Universe, Wake Up

But in the time it takes to say now, now is already over. It's already then.

Already, Over It, Say, Takes, Time

I think that if we don't learn to inhabit other people's perspectives, then we're never going to understand why people do what they do.

Inhabit, Learn, People, Perspective, Thinking, Understand

There are many answers, none of them right, but some of them most definitely wrong.

Answers, Definitely, Life, Right, Wrong

Life is fleeting. Don't waste a single moment of your precious life. Wake up now! And now! And now!

Inspiring, Life, Moment, Precious, Wake Up, Waste

. . . I am a time being. Do you know what a time being is? Well, if you give me a moment, I will tell you. A time being is someone who lives in time, and that means you, and me, and every one of us who is, or was, or ever will be.

Give, Giving, Know, Life, Mean, Moment

Zazen is better than a home. Zazen is a home that you can't ever lose.

Home, Lose, Loses, Zazen

Fiction is an elemental force, which has the power to shape reality in its own image - or images, I should say - because reality, like light, exists not only as a single point or particle, but also as an array of possibilities.

Array, Elemental, Fiction, Light, Power, Reality

I believe it doesn't matter what it is, as long as you can find something concrete to keep you busy while you are living your meaningless life.

Believe, Life, Living, Long, Matter, Meaningless

It takes a long time to write a book. I'm not going to spend that much time trying to deliver a message. The reason I do it is because I want to understand something myself. It's not a delivery device, it's an inquiry device. Didactic fiction to my mind never works. It backfires.

Book, Inquiry, Long, Reason, Writing

Even though I was making documentaries, my films had fictional elements to them. I think I like blurring those distinctions because so much of what we see on television purports to be the truth, but it's often largely imaginary - or wishful thinking, or any number of less honorable things.

Blurring, Elements, Imaginary, Numbers, Things, Thinking

What if I travel so far away in my dreams that I can't get back in time to wake up?

Away, Dream, Travel, Wake, Wake Up, What If

The important thing was that we were being polite and not saying all the things that were making us unhappy, which was the only way we knew how to love each other.

Important, Love, Thing, Unhappy, Way

That's what it feels like when I write, like I have this beautiful world in my head, but when I try to remember it in order to write it down, I change it, and I can't ever get it back.

Beautiful, Change, Feels, Like, Order, Writing

Sometimes when she told stories about the past her eyes would get teary from all the memories she had, but they weren't tears. She wasn't crying. They were just the memories, leaking out.

Crying, Eye, Memories, Past, Stories

When I start writing novels, I go into them with a spirit of inquiry, rather than to substantiate prejudices I had in the beginning. If you don't do that, you can't write good characters.

Beginning, Character, Inquiry, Novels, Prejudice, Writing

When Im writing a novel, which is what I like to write, I get up early, sit zazen, make a pot of green tea. I wear wrist cuffs to keep my wrists warm and minimize irritation from extended contact with the surface of my desk. I sit down and write.

Extended, Irritation, Like, Sit, Up Early, Writing

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