Wu Ming-Yi > Quotes

“So this was what a mountain was like, the same as a person: the more you know, the less you fear.”
― Wu Ming-Yi, The Man with the Compound Eyes

“In all honesty, I don’t envy you the possession of this power over memory, nor do I admire you. Because humans are usually completely unconcerned with the memories of other creatures. Human existence involves the willful destruction of the existential memories of other creatures and of your own memories as well. No life can survive without other lives, with the ecological memories of other living creatures have, memories of the environments in which the live. People don’t realize they need to rely on the memories of other organisms to survive. You think that flowers bloom in colorful profusion just to please your eyes. That a wild boar exists just to provide meat for your table. That a fish takes the bait just for you sake. That only you can mourn. That a stone falling into a gorge is of no significance. That a sambar deer, its head bent low to sip at a creek is not a revelation . . . When in fact the finest movement of any organism represents a change in an ecosystem.” The man with the compound eyes takes a deep sign and says: “But if you were any different you wouldn’t be human.”
― Wu Ming-Yi, The Man with the Compound Eyes

“I also hate cyclists posing in sunglasses and all the pro gear, thinking they’re cool when they couldn’t even pedal up the modest slope of Yang-teh Boulevard. You know the type: guy with a bulging gut who parks his expensive bike by the side of the road to show it off. Whenever I see a guy like that, I hope his chain falls off. Or that he gets a flat or a broken spoke.”
― Wu Ming-Yi, The Stolen Bicycle

“The love of old things is a way of respecting time.”
― Wu Ming-Yi, The Stolen Bicycle

“Each piece of trash that floated here seems to have brought a story with it across the sea, because anything that's been thrown away has its own tale.”
― Wu Ming-Yi, The Man with the Compound Eyes

“I read Hans Christian Andersen when I was young and don’t recall a single tale that wasn’t heavy. And that was how I got a feel for, you know, the one-legged little tin soldier who could never catch up with the ballerina he was courting. If you can accept that—that some things aren’t meant to be, that you can’t get all you want—you can be more accepting in your own life.”
― Wu Ming-Yi, The Stolen Bicycle

“Sometimes things haven't gone away, it's just that we can't see them.”
― Wu Ming-Yi, The Man with the Compound Eyes

“A story can take children places they've never been before and tell them about things that happened to folks even older than their elders.”
― Wu Ming-Yi, The Man with the Compound Eyes

“Sometimes I think that in the end all art is selfish, that it won't necessarily change other people's minds-but whatever it changes, you yourself knows best.”
― Wu Ming-Yi, The Stolen Bicycle

“every kind of animal has its own natural grace, its own dignity. Life has diversified into myriad kinds, each living in its own forthright yet mysterious way upon the earth. Life was not formless like smoke, but had a pattern and a posture.”
― Wu Ming-Yi, The Stolen Bicycle

“..only if you go to places nobody's ever been can you see the colours nobody's ever seen.”
― Wu Ming-Yi, The Man with the Compound Eyes

“Perhaps because I don't think he can completely understand me, I often feel like talking to him.”
― Wu Ming-Yi, The Man with the Compound Eyes

“It's kind of elusive, whatever it is that's communicated through the skin. It's hard to describe, but you know it when you feel it. You can sometimes tell whether another person loves you or not, just by touch.”
― Wu Ming-Yi, The Man with the Compound Eyes

“The first time I ever saw an elephant I was literally scared stiff. To think there could be a living creature as hard as a rock and as strong as a river, a creature whose nose was so nimble it could pick up nuts and yet powerful enough to whack over great trees”
― Wu Ming-Yi, The Stolen Bicycle

“ll life must feel pain in the face of death. To live without ain is to live without dignity.”
― Wu Ming-Yi, The Man with the Compound Eyes

“You must love the land, my children, and ring it in with your love. For the land is the most precious thing on this island. It is like rain, like the heart of a woman.”
― Wu Ming-Yi, The Man with the Compound Eyes

“The moment a man traverses a mountain range on a bicycle, he is like the first Mongolian you ever lept onto a wild horse on the steppe -- a rearing, snorting, bucking creature no one had ever thought to tame, because taming it would be on thinkable. The rider's body senses the Earth moving underfoot, a sensation humans have never known before, and which remains impossible to measure.”
― Wu Ming-Yi, The Stolen Bicycle

“有時候你一輩子記住的事，不是眼睛看到的事。」”
― Wu Ming-Yi, 天橋上的魔術師

“The time has come. I really feel I must relinquish my former identity. I have to try to make a change, or I will feel that I have lived my life in vain.”
― Wu Ming-Yi, The Man with the Compound Eyes

“Going through a mountain to get from place to place as quickly as possible is one way of life, while going around is another.”
― Wu Ming-Yi, The Man with the Compound Eyes

“Sometimes death is payback. At other times, it's just farewell, not owing anyone anything.”
― Wu Ming-Yi, The Man with the Compound Eyes

“Life is sometimes a trade-off.”
― Wu Ming-Yi, The Man with the Compound Eyes

“if you read them carefully you could identify the principles by virtue of which human beings understood the world as well as some hints about human nature.”
― Wu Ming-Yi, The Man with the Compound Eyes

“the Taiwan Nichi Nichi Shimpō, Taiwan’s first daily newspaper, dated 27 September in the thirty-eighth year of the Meiji era.”
― Wu Ming-Yi, The Stolen Bicycle

“Recently I keep thinking that this isn’t about the survival of a species. It’s about why we’re never satisfied with what we need, why we always take a bit more.”
― Wu Ming-Yi

“I must describe that morning for you, because every time something is described anew it becomes meaningful anew.”
― Wu Ming-Yi

“Con amore, difendete la terra con amore, perchè è una cosa preziosa, come la pioggia e il cuore delle donne".”
― Wu Ming-Yi, Montagne e nuvole negli occhi