8 quotes
Though the snow-drifts of Yoshino were heaped across his path, doubt not that whither his heart is set, his footsteps shall tread out their way.
The Tale of Genji (1925)
Ceaseless as the interminable voices of the bell-cricket, all night till dawn my tears flow.
The Tale of Genji (1925)
Real things in the darkness seem no realer than dreams.
The Tale of Genji (1925)
It is in general the unexplored that attracts us.
The Tale of Genji (1925)
You that in far-off countries of the sky can dwell secure, look back upon me here; for I am weary of this frail world's decay.
The Tale of Genji (1925)
Anything whatsoever may become the subject of a novel, provided only that it happens in this mundane life and not in some fairyland beyond our human ken.
The Tale of Genji (1925)
Think not that I have come in quest of common flowers; but rather to bemoan the loss of one whose scent has vanished from the air.
The Tale of Genji (1925)
I have a theory of my own about what this art of the novel is, and how it came into being. To begin with, it does not simply consist in the author's telling a story about the adventures of some other person. On the contrary, it happens because the storyteller's own experience of men and things, whether for good or ill—not only what he has passed through himself, but even events which he has only witnessed or been told of—has moved him to an emotion so passionate that he can no longer keep it shut up in his heart.
The Tale of Genji (1925)