Sōji Shimada > Quotes

“The deeper the pain you have, the more you hide it. I am sure I am not the only one who has suffered. The bitter truth is often covered with fake smiles.”
― Soji Shimada, The Tokyo Zodiac Murders

“We're all struggling so hard, heading in the wrong direction. All our efforts are in vain, Kazumi. They come to nothing! Our pleasure, our sorrow, our anger—it all comes and goes like a typhoon or a squall or cherry blossoms. We are all being pushed by our petty feelings and carried away to the same place. None of us can resist it. Do whatever you think is idealistic? But it's not! It's just petty! We only end up knowing that our efforts were in vain!”
― Soji Shimada, The Tokyo Zodiac Murders

“Saya mungkin berbeda dari orang lain, tetapi itulah yang menjadikan saya seorang seniman. Seni bukanlah meniru hasil karya orang lain; seni sejati hanya ada dalam perbedaan. Meskipun akan lebih mudah, saya tidak pernah mau mengikuti jejak orang lain.”
― Soji Shimada, The Tokyo Zodiac Murders

“I'm a huge fan of mysteries; in fact, they're almost an addiction. If a week goes by without reading a mystery, I suffer withdrawal symptoms. Then I wander around like I'm sleepwalking and wake up in a bookshop, looking for a mystery novel. I've read just about every mystery story ever written...but it's not an intellectual pursuit; it's more like me getting my fill of gossip.”
― Sōji Shimada, The Tokyo Zodiac Murders

“Perhaps the effects of speech and action were being measured as cash values. People without religion, ideology or faith, only trust money as the measure of worth and value.”
― Sōji Shimada, One Love Chigusa

“Art is not to copy the work of another; real art exists only in difference.”
― Sōji Shimada, The Tokyo Zodiac Murders

“Hingga hari ini, saya masih tidak mengerti apa yang terjadi. Saya hanya tahu betapa rasa takut bisa menjadi senjata yang ampuh.”
― Soji Shimada

“He was a life-form that, in the eyes of humanity, meant precisely nothing.”
― Sōji Shimada, One Love Chigusa

“Most people lead such boring lives, they try to justify themselves by putting everyone else in neat little categories.”
― Soji Shimada, The Tokyo Zodiac Murders

“There was an unpleasant metallic noise, a ringing coming from somewhere. He saw everything in a flash. The cliff behind him was in fact made of grey metal. Xie’s latent memory had allowed him to see this as real nature. But the truth was much different. Metal the dull color of lead, iron reddened with rust, all piled together…”
― Sōji Shimada, One Love Chigusa

“Then there’s the novel A Golden Key, by Akimitsu Takagi.” “Which has something to say about this same longitude?”
― Sōji Shimada, The Tokyo Zodiac Murders

“Saya tidak tertarik untuk memiliki tanah atau uang atau status. Satu-satunya keinginan saya adalah menemukan seorang pria yang akan menghabiskan hidupnya bersama saya.”
― Soji Shimada

“Let me see… What’s your favourite Sherlock Holmes case?” “I love them all!” “Just choose one.” “OK… ‘The Speckled Band’. That was Arthur Conan Doyle’s own favourite, and it’s also his most popular story.” “Oh, that one! It’s the weirdest of all his cases! It’s a story about a snake, right? If you keep a snake in a safe, it will soon die from lack of oxygen. And suppose it does survive in the box: snakes don’t drink milk. Have you ever seen any reptiles breast-feeding their babies? Only mammals do that. And how about a man whistling for a snake? Actually snakes can’t be trained. They don’t have ears, so how can they respond to a man’s commands? It’s a matter of common sense. Was Holmes stupid or what? Since the incidents were so unrealistic, I have to assume the story was made up by Dr Watson.”
― Sōji Shimada, The Tokyo Zodiac Murders

“Well,” I replied, “this may be a bit off the subject, but Heikichi wasn’t the only one who had it on his mind. The mystery writer Seicho Matsumoto wrote about it in his book Longitude 139 Degrees East. You may not be as well versed in mystery novels as I am. Have you ever heard of it?”
― Sōji Shimada, The Tokyo Zodiac Murders

“Dalam hidup ini tidak ada kesenangan tanpa kesusahan. Jangan biarkan dirimu menjadi pecundang.”
― Sōji Shimada, Murder in the Crooked House

“Chúng ta đọc được gì trên báo chí nào? Chỉ toàn những mẫu rập khuôn và định kiến! Khi một sinh viên cần cù tự sát, người ta luôn cho rằng chính sự cạnh tranh khốc liệt trong các kì thi tuyển đã giết chết cậu bé. Thật vớ vẩn! Mọi người chưa bao giờ nghĩ xem sự thật là gì. Hầu hết mọi người sống cuộc đời rất tẻ nhạt, họ cố gắng biện minh cho bản thân bằng cách đặt tất cả những người khác vào các nhóm phân loại.”
― Sōji Shimada, The Tokyo Zodiac Murders

“if you love seemingly impossible murder mysteries then you should check out the fantastic Locked Room International website (lockedroominternational.com or mylri.com) created by John Pugmire, the editor of this translation. LRI publishes English-language versions of locked-room mysteries from all over the world. John’s translation of Paul Halter’s The Crimson Fog (Le Brouillard Rouge) was”
― Sōji Shimada, The Tokyo Zodiac Murders

“Kalau tidak punya uang untuk dipegang, telapak tanganmu tak pernah jadi kasar.”
― Sōji Shimada, Murder in the Crooked House

“He had know of the notion of love but had always been suspicious of it. He'd decided that it was a phenomenon that only existed in novels. A fiction created by a single beautiful word. He'd thought that love was just a dream, or something from a tear-jerking drama. But he was wrong. This was real. And it was more powerful than he had imagined.”
― Sōji Shimada, One Love Chigusa