Shelly

“Most drinkers are lonely men, isolated in their own homes. To ask whether they drink because they’re isolated or isolated because the rest of the family disapprove of their drinking would be like clapping and trying to decide which hand made the sound—it can only lead to a lot of vain quibbling.”
― Osamu Dazai, Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu

“I had learned bit by bit the art of meeting people with a straight face—no, that’s not true: I have never been able to meet anyone without an accompaniment of painful smiles, the buffoonery of defeat. What I had acquired was the technique of stammering somehow, almost in a daze, the necessary small talk.”
― Osamu Dazai, No Longer Human

“If ever I meet someone society has designated as an outcast, I invariably feel affection for him, an emotion which carries me away in melting tenderness.”
― Osamu Dazai, No Longer Human

“If it failed I had no choice but to hang myself, a resolve which was tantamount to a bet on the existence of God.”
― Osamu Dazai, No Longer Human