I challenge anyone to understand Islam, its spirit, and not to love it. It is a beautiful religion of brotherhood and devotion.
If there’s only one nation in the sky, shouldn’t all passports be valid for it?
The animals might embody certain traits. We think of tigers as being ferocious, etc. But to my mind, it was the other way around: the humans embodied certain animal traits.
Any writer will be happy and good only if they know what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.
Just do it. Get it down on the page. Work hard. And then let go. Ask yourself why you want to write. You have to be clear about that.
At moments of wonder, it is easy to avoid small thinking, to entertain thoughts that span the universe, that capture both thunder and tinkle, thick and thin, the near and the far.
It’s important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse.
Why can’t reason give greater answers? Why can we throw a question further than we can pull in an answer? Why such a vast net if there’s so little fish to catch?
There is nothing more satisfying than having a sentence fall into place in a way you feel is right, and then adding another one and then another one. It’s extraordinarily satisfying.
Artists invent things as a way of telling the truth.
Work, work, work, but what mark do we leave, what point do we make? People who are too beholden to work become like erasers: as things move forward, they leave in their wake no trace of themselves.
Isn’t telling about something-using words, English or Japanese-already something of an invention? Isn’t just looking upon this world already something of an invention?
I am not a particularly natural writer. I am not a person who can write in paragraphs the way some writers do. For me, it’s sentence by sentence, sometimes word-by-word. And I revise constantly. It’s a very laborious process, but I love doing it.
When your own life is threatened, your sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible, selfish hunger for survival.
There are animals we haven’t stopped by. Don’t think they’re harmless. Life will defend itself no matter how small it is.
Jesus, Mary, Muhammad and Vishnu, how good to see you Richard Parker!
My life is like a memento mori painting from European art: there is always a grinning skull at my side to remind me of the folly of human ambition.
It is simple and brutal: a person can get used to anything, even to killing.
Art is the suitcase of history, carrying the essentials. Art is the life buoy of history. Art is seed, art is memory, art is vaccine.
I know what you want. You want a story that won’t surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won’t make you see higher or further or differently. You want a flat story. An immobile story. You want dry, yeastless factuality.