Shūsaku Endō Quotes

I don't want to die in darkness any thicker than this. I want to bring some kind of resolution in my life.

~ Shūsaku Endō

I, too, stood on the sacred image. For a moment this foot was on his face. It was on the face of the man who has been ever in my thoughts, on the face that was before me on the mountains, in my wanderings, in prison, on the best and most beautiful face that any man can ever know, on the face of him whom I have always longed to love. Even now that face is looking at me with eyes of pity from the plaque rubbed flat by many feet. « Trample ! » said those compassionate eyes. « Trample ! Your foot suffers in pain ; it must suffer like all the feet that have stepped on this plaque. But that pain alone is enough. I understand your pain and your suffering. It is for that reason that I am here. »« Lord, I resented your silence. »« I was not silent. I suffered beside you. »

~ Shūsaku Endō

« My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast ! I will sing and make melody ! Awake my soul ! Awake, O harp and lyre ! I will awake the dawn. » In childhood these words had always risen in his mind when he watched the wind blow over the blue sky and through the trees ; but that was a time when God was not as now an object of fear and perplexity but one who was near to the earth, giving harmony and living joy. 

~ Shūsaku Endō

Over the years I have forged intimate familial ties with these characters, who are reflections of a portion of myself. Consequently, even a character who appeared only once in a short story waits now in the wings, concealed by the curtain, for his next appearance on-stage. Not one of them has ever broken free of his familial ties with me and disappeared for ever - at least, not within the confines of my heart.

~ Shūsaku Endō

True religion should be able to respond to the dark melodies, the faulty and hideous sounds that echo from the heart of men.

~ Shūsaku Endō

At the core of her senseless actions, she vaguely perceived that she yearned for something. A something that would provide her with a sure sense of fulfillment. But she could not fathom what that something might be.

~ Shūsaku Endō

Not all men are handsome and strong. There are some who are cowards from birth. There are some who are weak by nature. There are even some who cry easily. But for such a man, a man both weak and cowardly, to bear the burden of his weakness and struggle valiantly to live a beautiful life-- that's what I call great. The reason I'm so fond of Gaston is not because he has a strong will or a good head. Rather it's because, weakling and coward that he is, he keeps on fighting in his own way.

~ Shūsaku Endō

I did pray. I kept on Praying. But prayer did nothing to alleviate their suffering.

~ Shūsaku Endō

The reason why darkness terrifying for us, he reflected, is that there remains in us the instinctive fear the primitive man had when there was as yet no light.

~ Shūsaku Endō

The sound of darkness was certainly intricately linked to the sense of being alone but unrelated to this was the sound of the palpitations of men and women experiencing the sense of utter solitude. There was no doubt about it. This was a sound audible only on evenings such as this.

~ Shūsaku Endō

A man who wields a pen has to be accountable to society.

~ Shūsaku Endō

The seeds of salvation are buried in every act of evil.

~ Shūsaku Endō

Behind the depressing silence of the sea, the silence of God …. the feeling that while men raise their voices in anguish God remains with folded arms, silent.

~ Shūsaku Endō

Lord, why are you silent? Why are you always silent...?

~ Shūsaku Endō

To be a saint or a man of too good a nature in today's pragmatic world, with everyone out to get the other fellow, was equivalent to being a fool, wasn't it?

~ Shūsaku Endō

The earth is not just for the clever and the strong.

~ Shūsaku Endō

In order to pile weakness upon weakness he was trying to drag others along the path that he himself had walked.

~ Shūsaku Endō

No matter what the circumstances, no man can completely escape from vanity.

~ Shūsaku Endō