Quotes from Y?ko Ogawa

No one actually witnessed the first numbers come into being-when we first became aware of them, they'd already been around for a long time.

It shocked me to realize that he suddenly seemed old -- so frail that the slightest push would have sent him tumbling. The body I had felt when I'd gone searching for my hidden presents had been sturdier; and though I had always thought of him as tall, e was now much shorter than me. I realized I had no idea how old he was -- I suppose I'd thought that something as mundane as age could never apply to him.

In mathematics, the truth is somewhere out there in a place no one knows, beyond all the beaten paths. And it's not always at the top of the mountain. It might be in a crack on the smoothest cliff or somewhere deep in the valley.

If it goes on like this and we can't compensate for the things that get lost, the island will soon be nothing but absences and holes, and when it's completely hollowed out, we'll all disappear without a trace. Don't you ever feel that way?

It's true, I know, that there are more gaps in the island than there used to be. When I was a child, the whole place seemed…how can I put this?…a lot fuller, a lot more real. But as things got thinner, more full of holes, our hearts got thinner, too, diluted somehow. I suppose that kept things in balance. And even when that balance begins to collapse, something remains. Which is why you shouldn't worry.

But by that time I had no interest in learning more about him, and I accepted the role of silent accomplice when it came to my mother's illusions.

During all those years, even after Root was old enough to grow a mustache, in the Professor's eyes he remained a small boy in need of protection. And when the Professor could no longer reach high enough, Root would bend over so the Professor could rub his head.

The sound of the rain seemed louder in the study, as if the sky were actually lower there.

It's peaceful eating outside by myself

It's peaceful eating outside by myself, looking up at the night sky. The evenings are warmer now that spring is almost here, and the air feels soft. My hands and feet pressed against the mat are dull and numb, but everything else—the crepe myrtle, the bricks lining the flower beds

Closed in the hidden room, I continued to disappear.

So, a great Indian teacher of mathematics discovered the zero written in God's notebook, and, thanks to him, we can now read many more pages in the notebook. Is that it?

Out in the open air, he seemed somehow older.

The white clippings of hair fell in clumps on the cape and then scattered to the floor.

Eternal truths are ultimately invisible, and you won't find them in material things or natural phenomena, or even in human emotions.

The smallest perfect number is 6: 6 = 1 + 2 + 3.

There are lots of deficient numbers that are just one larger than the sum of their divisors, but there are no abundant numbers that are just one smaller than the sum of theirs.

Ad what will happen if words disappear? I whispered to myself, afraid that if I said it too loudly, it might come true

there was no shame in admitting you didn't have the answer, it was a necessary step toward the truth.

Eternal truths are ultimately invisible, and you won't find them in material things or natural phenomena, or even in human emotions. Mathematics, however, can illuminate them, can give them expression—in fact, nothing can prevent it from doing so.

You see, my brother-in-law can never remember you, but he can never forget me

And yet, the room was filled by a kind of stillness. Not simply an absence of noise, but an accumulation of layers of silence, untouched by fallen hair or mold, silence that the Professor left behind as he wandered through the numbers, silence like a clear lake hidden in the depths of the forest.

You can't write with your head. I want you to write with your hand

And it helped that he forgot what he'd taught me before, so I was free to repeat the same question until I