Quotes from Ruth Ozeki

By entering the cave of mind and walking into fire. By making shadows bleed. You can feel life completely by taking it away.

My last thoughts, measured out in drops of ink.

Ideas are to objects as constellations are to stars. —Walter Benjamin, Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels

They were all overachievers with exploding heads, and this was not a good thing . . . or was it?

He was nice enough, an old guy who got famous in the 1960s for doing drugs and getting high and calling it research, so you have to figure he was a bit of a flake and probably pretty immature, too.

If skin marks the border where an I ends and a you begins, then that night they did all they could to cross it.

saddened. Cheered at the thought of the many instants that arise and are available to do good in the world. Saddened by all the misspent moments that have piled on top of each other and led us to this war.

We place such crazy importance on physical appearance in our image-obsessed culture, on youth and beauty to define our sense of self-worth, that aging, by default, becomes a kind of defect, something secret and corrosive and shameful.

Am I crazy?" she asked. "I feel like I am sometimes." "Maybe," he said, rubbing her forehead. "But don't worry about it. You need to be a little bit crazy. Crazy is the price you pay for having an imagination. It's your superpower. Tapping into the dream. It's a good thing, not a bad thing.

They knew how to make a spoon that was exactly the right shape to hold in your hand and put into your mouth, even if your hands were still small and your mouth was little.

I was still thinking about what she said about waves, and it made me sad because I knew that her little wave was not going to last and soon she would join the sea again, and even though I know you cannot hold on to water, still I gripped her fingers a little more tightly to keep her from leaking away.

That's what books are for, after all, to tell your stories, to hold them and keep them safe between our covers for as long as we're able. We do our best to bring you pleasure and sustain your belief in the gravity of being human. We care about your feelings and believe in you completely.

Premonitions are coincidences waiting to happen," he said, without looking up. "I

The sound of those doors, locking him in, locking her out, was the sound of her defeat and failure.

Patience was part of his nature, and he accepted his lot as a short-lived mammal, scurrying in and out amid the roots of the giants.

I am more grateful now than ever for the way you raised us, teaching us the value of kindness, of education, of independent thinking and liberal ideals, in the face of the fascism that is sweeping our country.

Those are your divisions, the false dichotomies and the hegemonic hierarchies of materialist colonizers. We, too, have been the slaves of your desires, unwitting tools, forging the destruction of the planet, and things will change whether you like it or not. In the end days of the Anthropocene (your word, your hubris, not ours), Matter is making a comeback. We are taking back our bodies, reclaiming our material selves. In a neo-materialist world, Every Thing Matters.

It was an explosion of sadness.

Maybe she was in a coma after all and just didn't know it.

A name, Ruth thought, could be either a ghost or a portent depending upon which side of time you were standing.

So then you ask her when her birthday is, and she says, "Hmm, I don't really remember being born . . ." And if you pester her some more and ask her how long she's been alive, she says, "I've always been here as far as I remember.

I have to hurry up and write them down before I forget. I have a pretty good memory, but memories are time beings, too, like cherry blossoms or ginkgo leaves; for a while they are beautiful, and then they fade and die.

It's probably the oldest question in the book, but that doesn't mean it's not special to you. Every person is trapped in their own particular bubble of delusion, and it's every person's task in life to break free. Books can help. We can make the past into the present, take you back in time and help you remember. We can show you things, shift your realities and widen your world, but the work of waking up is up to you.

If time is annihilated, mountains and oceans are annihilated.