Kenzaburo Oe
Kenzaburo Oe
Kenzaburō Ōeis a Japanese writer and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature. His novels, short stories and essays were strongly influenced by French and American literature and literary theory. They deal with political, social and philosophical issues including nuclear weapons, nuclear power, social non-conformism, and existentialism...
NationalityJapanese
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth31 January 1935
CountryJapan
suffering form novel
I have survived by representing these sufferings of mine in the form of the novel.
country japan years
My observation is that after one hundred and twenty years of modernisation since the opening of the country, present-day Japan is split between two opposite poles of ambiguity.
country japan asia
The ambiguous orientation of Japan drove the country into the position of an invader in Asia.
japan way west
The way Japan had tried to build up a modern state modelled on the West was cataclysmic.
teacher students teacher-student
The ideal teacher student relationship exists when the student is better than the teacher.
thinking people faces
I don't think young people need to see the face of the deceased.
prayer thinking admitting
To talk of prayer after admitting he professed no faith was, in my opinion, a breach of common courtesy. In this sense, he did make a social blunder, for which I think he well deserved some minor castigation.
relationship suffering different
As I grew up, I was continually to suffer hardships in different realms of life - in my family, in my relationship to Japanese society and in my way of living at large in the latter half of the twentieth century.
people soul aftermath
The people of Hiroshima went to work at once to restore human society in the aftermath of the great atomic flood. They were concerned to salvage their own lives, but in the process they also salvaged the souls of the people who have brought the atomic bomb.
voice style firsts
Fundamentally a good author has his or her own sense of style. There is a natural, deep voice, and that voice is present from the first draft of a manuscript. When he or she elaborates on the initial manuscript, it continues to strengthen and simplify that natural, deep voice.
country past japan
Paradoxically, the people and state of Japan living on such moral props were not innocent but had been stained by their own past history of invading other Asian countries.
care green watches
It takes a person of great care and insight to watch for any abnormality in the green grass even while it grows abundantly and healthily.
writing thinking cosmos
I think I am doing my works to link myself, my family, with society — with the cosmos. To link me with my family to the cosmos, that is easy, because all literature has some mystic tendency. So when we write about our family, we can link ourselves to the cosmos.
jobs sorrow clown
The writer's job is the job of a clown …the clown who also talks about sorrow.