I conclude that it is a fundamental mistake to think that salvation, justice, or virtue come through merely human institutions.
It is sometimes best to slip over thoughts and not go to the bottom of them.
We are never satisfied with having done well; and in endeavoring to do better, we do much worse.
When I step into this library, I cannot understand why I ever step out of it.
There are twelve hours in the day, and above fifty in the night.
there are some people who never acknowledge themselves in the wrong; God help them!
long journeys are strange things: if we were always to continue in the same mind we are in at the end of a journey, we should never stir from the place we were then in: but Providence in kindness to us causes us to forget it. It is much the same with lying-in women. Heaven permits this forgetfulness that the world may be peopled, and that folks may take journeys to Provence.
We may disagree on methods [with Martin Luther King], but we don't have to argue all day on methods.
I have lived a life that has been beautiful and painful at some moments. But I am convinced others can learn how to control a certain kind of rage that bubbles up in many Americans, particularly, but not limited to, women, blacks, and other minorities.
I reject your reality and substitute my own.
Since I have come to America, I am often asked whether my next novel will be set in America. I don't think it will. I think I will be living in America for some time to come, but while living in America, I would like to write about Japanese society from the outside.