“There is an old saying that goes 'Start by plucking a hair, end by killing a man'. It is also said, 'Two hands must meet to make a sound'. The atrocities that happened here weren't carried out by strangers - it was us, the people who'd once lived together harmoniously in the same village." "They say it was the superstitious freaks who did it." "No, it was Satan who did it." "Come now, what sort of a ghost is that?" Ryu Yosop replied, "It is the black thing that lives in the heart of every man.” WarDeathEvilKorean War Book:The Guest Source: The Guest
“Even if you are alive somewhere, the absence of the other person who used to be there beside you obliterates your presence. Everything in the room, even the stars in the sky, can disappear in a second, changing one scene for another, just like in a dream.” DeathLonelinessSolitudeDeath Of A Loved OneDreamingHwang Sok YongThe Old Garden Book:The Old Garden Source: The Old Garden
“Women are walking around on the streets. From her calf and the hem of her skirt to her hip, from her hair to the high heels on her feet, a young woman is freedom. Especially when you look at her from afar.” WomenFreedomBeautyYoung WomenHwang Sok YongThe Old Garden Book:The Old Garden Source: The Old Garden
“The scene [Bruegel's 'Landscape with the Fall of Icarus'] is filled with a vast field, and a cow and a farmer plowing. In the left-hand corner is a tiny ocean the size of a palm, and there, I can barely make it out, the two legs of a man who fell headlong into the sea. This is called the Fall of Icarus. Compared to everyday life, the fall of an idealist who flew too high with candle-wax wings is an unremarkable tragedy.” PerspectiveTragedyIdealismHwang Sok YongThe Old GardenPieter BruegelThe Fall Of Icarus Book:The Old Garden Source: The Old Garden
“They are like the handful of belongings saved from a burnt-down house. There should be a continuous challenge to authority for change and reform, and groups of ordinary people should form an alliance to reclaim what was taken by the state inch by inch, like a children's game, and enlarge the territory to the level of practical equality.” Socialism Communism MarxismHwang Sok YongThe Old Garden Book:The Old Garden Source: The Old Garden