Kazuo Ishiguro citáty

„„Pište o tom, co víte“ je ta nejhloupější věc, kterou jsem slyšel. Povzbuzuje lidi, aby psali nudnou autobiografii. Je to opak podněcování představivosti a potenciálu spisovatelů.“

—  Kazuo Ishiguro

Zdroj: Z rozhovoru s časopisem ShortList. https://lithub.com/kazuo-ishiguro-write-what-you-know-is-the-stupidest-thing-ive-ever-heard/

„There was another life that I might have had, but I am having this one.“

—  Kazuo Ishiguro

On growing up in England, having left Japan at age 5. Conversation with , The Writer http://www.writermag.com/, volume 114, number 5, May 2001, collected in Conversations with Kazuo Ishiguro, p. 189 https://books.google.com/books?id=lvuteIrz7JUC&pg=PA189&dq=%22there+was+another+life+that+i+might+have+had,+but+I%E2%80%99m+having+this+one%22
Interviews
Kontext: I have a sense of having just left without saying goodbye, and of this whole other world just kind of fading away. … I have the feeling of this completely alternative person I should have become. There was another life that I might have had, but I am having this one.

„Memories, even your most precious ones, fade surprisingly quickly. But I don't go along with that. The memories I value most, I don't see them ever fading.“

—  Kazuo Ishiguro, kniha Never Let Me Go

Zdroj: Never Let Me Go (2005), Chapter 23, p. 280

„Sometimes I get so immersed in my own company, if I unexpectedly run into someone I know, it's a bit of a shock and takes me a while to adjust.“

—  Kazuo Ishiguro, kniha Never Let Me Go

Zdroj: Never Let Me Go

„We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all.“

—  Kazuo Ishiguro, kniha Never Let Me Go

Zdroj: Never Let Me Go

„What is the point in worrying oneself too much about what one could or could not have done to control the course one’s life took? Surely it is enough that the likes of you and I at least try to make our small contribution count for something true and worthy. And if some of us are prepared to sacrifice much in life in order to pursue such aspirations, surely that is in itself, whatever the outcome, cause for pride and contentment.“

—  Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day

Zdroj: The Remains of the Day (1989), p. 244
Kontext: It is now some twenty minutes since the man left, but I have remained here on this bench to await the event that has just taken place – namely, the switching on of the pier lights. As I say, the happiness with which the pleasure-seekers gathering on this pier greeted this small event would tend to vouch for the correctness of my companion’s words; for a great many people, the evening is the most enjoyable part of the day. Perhaps, then, there is something to his advice that I should cease looking back so much, that I should adopt a more positive outlook and try to make the best of what remains of my day. After all, what can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished? The hard reality is, surely, that for the likes of you and I, there is little choice other than to leave our fate, ultimately, in the hands of those great gentlemen at the hub of this world who employ our services. What is the point in worrying oneself too much about what one could or could not have done to control the course one’s life took? Surely it is enough that the likes of you and I at least try to make our small contribution count for something true and worthy. And if some of us are prepared to sacrifice much in life in order to pursue such aspirations, surely that is in itself, whatever the outcome, cause for pride and contentment.

„What I'm not sure about, is if our lives have been so different from the lives of the people we save. We all complete. Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through, or feel we've had enough time.“

—  Kazuo Ishiguro, kniha Never Let Me Go

Zdroj: Never Let Me Go

„You have to accept that sometimes that's how things happen in this world. People's opinions, their feelings, they go one way, then the other. It just so happens you grew up at a certain point in this process.“

—  Kazuo Ishiguro, kniha Never Let Me Go

Zdroj: Never Let Me Go

„It was like when you make a move in chess and just as you take your finger off the piece, you see the mistake you've made, and there's this panic because you don't know yet the scale of disaster you've left yourself open to.“

—  Kazuo Ishiguro, kniha Never Let Me Go

Zdroj: Never Let Me Go (2005), Chapter 10

„You say you’re? Sure that you’re in love? How can you know it? You think love is so simple?“

—  Kazuo Ishiguro, kniha Never Let Me Go

Zdroj: Never Let Me Go

„All children have to be deceived if they are to grow up without trauma.“

—  Kazuo Ishiguro, kniha Never Let Me Go

Zdroj: Never Let Me Go

„She always wanted to believe in things.“

—  Kazuo Ishiguro, kniha Never Let Me Go

Zdroj: Never Let Me Go

„Indeed — why should I not admit it? — in that moment, my heart was breaking.“

—  Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day

Zdroj: The Remains of the Day

„The evening's the best part of the day. You've done your day's work. Now you can put your feet up and enjoy it.“

—  Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day

Zdroj: The Remains of the Day

„The problem, as I see it, is that you've been told and not told. You've been told, but none of you really understand, and I dare say, some people are quite happy to leave it that way.“

—  Kazuo Ishiguro, kniha Never Let Me Go

Zdroj: Never Let Me Go

„Poor creatures. What did we do to you? With all our schemes and plans?“

—  Kazuo Ishiguro, kniha Never Let Me Go

Zdroj: Never Let Me Go

„I'm more interested in what people tell themselves happened rather than what actually happened.“

—  Kazuo Ishiguro

Dunn, Adam. " In the land of memory: Kazuo Ishiguro remembers when http://web.archive.org/web/20010625162920/http://www.cnn.com/2000/books/news/10/27/kazuo.ishiguro/" cnn.com Book News. 27 Oct. 2000 (archived from the original http://www.cnn.com/2000/books/news/10/27/kazuo.ishiguro/ on 2001-06-25).
Interviews
Kontext: More fundamentally, I'm interested in memory because it's a filter through which we see our lives, and because it's foggy and obscure, the opportunities for self-deception are there. In the end, as a writer, I'm more interested in what people tell themselves happened rather than what actually happened.

„It had never occurred to me that our lives, which had been so closely interwoven, could unravel with such speed.“

—  Kazuo Ishiguro

„If you are under the impression you have already perfected yourself, you will never rise to the heights you are no doubt capable of.“

—  Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day

Zdroj: The Remains of the Day