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Only a shipwrecked person who has just escaped drowning could understand the psychology of someone who breaks out in laughter just because he is able to breathe.

— Kōbō Abe The Woman in the Dunes (1962)

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More quotes by Kōbō Abe

More than iron doors, more than walls, it is the tiny peephole that really makes the prisoner feel locked in.

The Woman in the Dunes (1962)

When a castaway collapses from hunger and thirst it is fear of physical want rather than a real want, they say. Defeat begins with the fear that one has lost.

The Woman in the Dunes (1962)

He wanted to believe that his own lack of movement had stopped all movement in the world, the way a hibernating frog abolishes winter.

The Woman in the Dunes (1962)

It goes on, terrifyingly repetitive. One could not do without repetition in life, like the beating of the heart, but it was also true that the beating of the heart was not all there was to life.

The Woman in the Dunes (1962)

Suddenly a sorrow the color of dawn welled up in him. They might as well lick each other's wounds. But they would lick forever, and the wounds would never heal, and in the end their tongues would be worn away.

The Woman in the Dunes (1962)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Kōbō Abe (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.