Ruth Ozeki quotes

The relationship between reader and writer is reciprocal in a way. We co-create each other. We are constantly emerging out of the relationship we have with others. (Ruth Ozeki)
Inspiration comes from everything from the entire world, and it's hard to pinpoint one thing. I can trace one inspiration to the writing of 13th-century Zen master Dogen Zenji, who writes beautifully about time. View quote
Ruth Ozeki
When Im writing a novel, which is what I like to write, I get up early, sit zazen, make a pot of green tea. I wear wrist cuffs to keep my wrists warm and minimize irritation from extended contact with the surface of my desk. I sit down and write. View quote
Ruth Ozeki
For a writer, you definitely do not want to be in the mainstream. You want to be on the edge because that's where the vantage point is. That's where you can see. View quote
Ruth Ozeki
Do all kids have to worry about their parents' mental health? The way society is set up, parents are supposed to be the grown-up ones and look after the kids, but a lot of times it's the other way around. View quote
Ruth Ozeki
Print is predictable and impersonal, conveying information in a mechanical transaction with the reader's eye. Handwriting, by contrast, resists the eye, reveals its meaning slowly, and is as intimate as skin. View quote
Ruth Ozeki
She smiled. "Life is full of stories. Or maybe life is only stories. Good night, my dear Nao. View quote
Ruth Ozeki
And if you decide not to read anymore, hey, no problem, because you're not the one I was waiting for anyway. But if you decide to read on, then guess what? You're my kind of time being and together we'll make magic! View quote
Ruth Ozeki
I believe it doesn't matter what it is, as long as you can find something concrete to keep you busy while you are living your meaningless life. View quote
Ruth Ozeki
For the time being Words scatter Are they fallen leaves? View quote
Ruth Ozeki
What if I travel so far away in my dreams that I can't get back in time to wake up? (Ruth Ozeki)
No matter how much bullying they inflict on my body, as long as I have this hope, I can endure any pain. View quote
Ruth Ozeki
An unfinished book. left unattended, turns feral, and she would need all her focus, will and ruthless determination to tame it again. View quote
Ruth Ozeki
The important thing was that we were being polite and not saying all the things that were making us unhappy, which was the only way we knew how to love each other. View quote
Ruth Ozeki
All through my childhood, I wanted to be a novelist. I stopped writing at various points because I would get frustrated because there were things I didn't know how to do. I didn't know how to move a story through time. Pacing. My character would enter a room and need to get across the room to the action, and I would walk her ploddingly across the room. I didn't know how to move the plot along quickly and efficiently through time... View quote
Ruth Ozeki
Fiction is an elemental force, which has the power to shape reality in its own image - or images, I should say - because reality, like light, exists not only as a single point or particle, but also as an array of possibilities. View quote
Ruth Ozeki
I did documentary film for a long time, and I spent a lot of time behind the camera, fervently wishing that the reality I was filming would conform to my narrative propriety. But you can't control it. View quote
Ruth Ozeki
My mind is like a gyre, and odd juxtapositions happen. View quote
Ruth Ozeki
When I start writing these novels, I go into them with a spirit of inquiry rather than to substantiate prejudices I had in the beginning. If you don't do that, you can't write good characters. View quote
Ruth Ozeki
Sometimes when she told stories about the past her eyes would get teary from all the memories she had, but they weren't tears. She wasn't crying. They were just the memories, leaking out. View quote
Ruth Ozeki
Life is fleeting. Don't waste a single moment of your precious life. Wake up now! And now! And now! (Ruth Ozeki)
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. View quote
Ruth Ozeki
The past is weird. I mean, does it really exist ? It feels like it exists, but where is it ? And if it did exists, but doesn't now, then where did it go ? View quote
Ruth Ozeki
...I am a time being. Do you know what a time being is? Well, if you give me a moment, I will tell you. A time being is someone who lives in time, and that means you, and me, and every one of us who is, or was, or ever will be. View quote
Ruth Ozeki
Even though I was making documentaries, my films had fictional elements to them. I think I like blurring those distinctions because so much of what we see on television purports to be the truth, but it's often largely imaginary - or wishful thinking, or any number of less honorable things. View quote
Ruth Ozeki