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Kazuo Ishiguro
26 quotes
“More fundamentally, I'm interested in memory because it's a filter through which we see our lives, and because it's foggy and obscure, the opportunities for self-deception are there. In the end, as a writer, I'm more interested in what people tell themselves happened rather than what actually happened.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dunn, Adam. "In the land of memory: Kazuo Ishiguro remembers when" cnn.com Book News. 27 Oct. 2000 (archived from the original on 2001-06-25).
“I have a sense of having just left without saying goodbye, and of this whole other world just kind of fading away. … I have the feeling of this completely alternative person I should have become. There was another life that I might have had, but I am having this one.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On growing up in England, having left Japan at age 5. Conversation with , The Writer, volume 114, number 5, May 2001, collected in Conversations with Kazuo Ishiguro, p. 189
“If you go to Tokyo, I think it becomes very obvious that there's this almost seamless mixture of popular culture and Japanese traditional culture.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: SPIEGEL Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro: "I Remain Fascinated by Memory", Der Spiegel, 5 October 2005.
“After all, there's no turning back the clock now. One can't be forever dwelling on what might have been. One should realize one has as good as most, perhaps better, and be grateful.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: , Faber and Faber, 1989, page 251 (ISBN 9780571200733).
“Perhaps it is indeed time I began to look at this whole matter of bantering more enthusiastically. After all, when one thinks about it, it is not such a foolish thing to indulge in – particularly if it is the case that in bantering lies the key to human warmth.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: , Faber and Faber, 1989, page 258 (ISBN 9780571200733).
“My donors have always tended to do much better than expected.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And I'm a Hailsham student – which is enough by itself sometimes to get people's backs up.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ruth, incidentally, was only the third or fourth donor I got to choose.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It'll come off. If you can't get it off yourself, just take it to Miss Jody.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'At least you got him to pipe down,' she said. 'Are you okay? Mad animal.'”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Kath, I've been looking all over for you. I mean't to say sorry. I mean, I'm really, really sorry. I honestly didn't mean to hit you the other day. I wouldn't dream of hitting a girl, and even if I did, I'd never want to hit you. I'm really, really sorry.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She said we weren't being taught enough.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is this gallery? Why should she have a gallery of things done by us?”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Maybe she sells them. Outside, out there.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It never occurred to us to wonder how we would feel being seen like that.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I won't be a carer any more come the end of the year, and though I've got a lot out of it, I have to admit I'll welcome the chance to rest.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Sales were important to us because that was how we got hold of things from outside.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Her general drift was clear enough: we were all very special, being Hailsham students, and so it was all the more disappointing when we behaved badly.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Miss Emily had an intellect you could slice logs with.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was like when you make a move in chess and just as you take your finger off the piece, you see the mistake you've made, and there's this panic because you don't know yet the scale of disaster you've left yourself open to.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Well, this is a surprise. If you aren't here to give me trouble, then why are you here?”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is all strictly against regulations, of course, and Marie-Claude should never have asked you in. And naturally, I should have turned you out the second I knew you were here. But Marie-Claude doesn't care much for their regulations these days, and I must say, neither do I.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Memories, even your most precious ones, fade surprisingly quickly. But I don't go along with that. The memories I value most, I don't see them ever fading.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I keep thinking about this river somewhere, with the water moving really fast. And these two people in the water, trying to hold onto each other, holding on as hard as they can, but in the end it's just too much. The current's too strong. They've got to let go, drift apart. That's how it is with us. It's a shame, Kath, because we've loved each other all our lives. But in the end, we can't stay together forever.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don't really like to work with literary allusions very much. I never want to be in a position where I'm saying, "You've got to read a lot of other stuff" or "You've got to have had a good education in literature to fully appreciate what I'm doing." ... I actually dislike, more than many people, working through literary allusion. I just feel that there's something a bit snobbish or elitist about that. I don't like it as a reader, when I'm reading something. It's not just the elitism of it; it jolts me out of the mode in which I'm reading. I've immersed myself in the world and then when the light goes on I'm supposed to be making some kind of literary comparison to another text. I find I'm pulled out of my kind of fictional world, I'm asked to use my brain in a different kind of way. I don't like that.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rukeyser, Rebecca. "Kazuo Ishiguro: Mythic Retreat" guernicamag.com interview. 1 May 2015.
“It is now some twenty minutes since the man left, but I have remained here on this bench to await the event that has just taken place – namely, the switching on of the pier lights. As I say, the happiness with which the pleasure-seekers gathering on this pier greeted this small event would tend to vouch for the correctness of my companion’s words; for a great many people, the evening is the most enjoyable part of the day. Perhaps, then, there is something to his advice that I should cease looking back so much, that I should adopt a more positive outlook and try to make the best of what remains of my day. After all, what can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished? The hard reality is, surely, that for the likes of you and I, there is little choice other than to leave our fate, ultimately, in the hands of those great gentlemen at the hub of this world who employ our services. What is the point in worrying oneself too much about what one could or could not have done to control the course one’s life took? Surely it is enough that the likes of you and I at least try to make our small contribution count for something true and worthy. And if some of us are prepared to sacrifice much in life in order to pursue such aspirations, surely that is in itself, whatever the outcome, cause for pride and contentment.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (born 1954) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: , Faber and Faber, 1989, page 256 (ISBN 9780571200733).