An Artist Of The Floating World Quotes
"If on a sunny day you climb the steep path leading up from the little wooden bridge, you will not have to walk far before the roof of my house becomes visible."
"But then I am not, nor have I ever been, a wealthy man."
"It is of the first importance to us that the house our father built should pass to one he would have approved of."
"It will not be in the interests of any of you to try to outbid one another."
"How so much more honourable is such a contest, in which one’s moral conduct and achievement are brought as witnesses."
"For all that, the Sugimuras’ high-handedness was apparent everywhere during the transactions."
"Sometimes, in the early morning, I have moved back that screen to find the sunlight pouring through revealing clouds of dust."
"‘Father takes a lot of looking after now he’s retired,’ Noriko went on, with a mischievous grin."
"Isn’t that so, Father? You’re making a lot of progress."
"He even cooks meals from time to time. You wouldn’t have believed it, would you?"
"‘I had no idea things had come so far,’ she said, her voice lowered."
"‘We laughed at the time,’ Setsuko said, ‘but perhaps it really was a love match.’"
"It’s possible I didn’t pay enough attention to her at the time."
"We are greatly privileged to have a benefactor of such influence and generosity."
"I’ve suspected for some time that Sensei was unaware of the high regard in which he is held by people in this city."
"But to all of us here it comes as no surprise. In fact, it may be said that respected enormously as he is by the public at large, it is we here at this table who alone know the extent to which that respect still falls short."
"People have not on the whole associated poor taste with my name."
"Young men of your generation tend to see things far too simply."
"It's simply that I enjoy standing there as the sun sets, surveying my surroundings and the changes taking place around me."
"The world may now have a different opinion of your work, but there's no need to lie about yourself."
"It is hard to think of Arakawa, with its cleanly swept residential streets, its rows of maple trees on the pavements, its dignified houses each set apart from the next, and its general air of being surrounded by countryside, as being part of the city."
"I have no reason to believe a meeting between us would produce anything of value."
"It is always good to re-establish contact with old colleagues."
"The best things, he always used to say, are put together of a night and vanish with the morning."
"The finest, most fragile beauty an artist can hope to capture drifts within those pleasure houses after dark."
"For though it may seem a little foolish now in the light of what became of his career, it was Mori-san’s wish at that time to do nothing less than change fundamentally the identity of painting as practised in our city."
"A man who aspires to rise above the mediocre, to be something more than ordinary, surely deserves admiration, even if in the end he fails and loses a fortune on account of his ambitions."
"It is by no means desirable that one be always instructing and pronouncing to one’s pupils; there are many situations when it is preferable to remain silent so as to allow them the chance to debate and ponder."
"The underlying spirit – that people feel the need to express their views openly and strongly – now that's a healthy thing, don't you think so?"
"But the young are ready to fight for their dignity."
"No time for cowardly talking. Japan must go forward."
"It is perhaps important to remember this when making judgements concerning my former teacher."
"It is quite possible, of course, that I imagined this; but then I do recall quite distinctly that when I threw a glance towards young Mitsuo, he was watching me with a peculiar intensity."
"It’s just that in the end we turned out to be ordinary men. Ordinary men with no special gifts of insight. It was simply our misfortune to have been ordinary men during such times."
"We at least acted on what we believed and did our utmost."
"It’s no bad thing that a young artist experiment a little."
"But in the end we turned out to be ordinary men. Ordinary men with no special gifts of insight."
"No one cares now what the likes of you and me once did. They look at us and see only two old men with their sticks."
"For however one may come in later years to reassess one’s achievements, it is always a consolation to know that one’s life has contained a moment or two of real satisfaction."
"Our nation, it seems, whatever mistakes it may have made in the past, has now another chance to make a better go of things. One can only wish these young people well."