“Humanity’s elite were little girls. Humanity existed so that they could exist. ¶ Women and buffoons were crippled. Their bodies contained errors of construction that could inspire no other reaction but laughter. ¶ Only little girls were perfect. Nothing stuck out from their bodies, no grotesque appendages, no idiotic protuberances. They were of marvelous design, streamlined to present no resistance to life. ¶ Of no material utility, they were the most necessary of all because they embodied humanity’s beauty – its real beauty, that which makes living a summer breeze, where nothing clashes and the body is pure celebration from head to foot. One has to have been a little girl to know how exquisite it is to have a body.” GirlsEnglish TranslationAndrew Wilson Book:Le Sabotage amoureux Source: Le Sabotage amoureux
“The war began in 1972. That was the year I awoke to a profound truth: no one on this earth is indispensable, except the enemy. ¶ Without an enemy, human beings are poor things indeed. Their lives are ordeals, crushed between insignificance and boredom. ¶ The enemy is the Savior. His mere existence is enough to revitalize humanity. Thanks to the enemy, that unfortunate accident called life becomes epic.” WarEnemyEnglish TranslationAndrew Wilson Book:Le Sabotage amoureux Source: Le Sabotage amoureux
“…this story happened in China to the extent that it was permitted to do so—which is to say very little. ¶ It is a ghetto story, a tale of double exile: exile from our native country (which for me was Japan, since I was convinced that I was Japanese), and exile from China which surrounded us but from which we were cut off, by virtue of our status as profoundly unwanted guests. ¶ Make no mistake, however, in the end, China has the same weight in these pages as the Black Death had in Bocaccio’s Decameron: though hardly mentioned, it RAGES throughout.” ChinaEnglish TranslationAndrew Wilson Book:Le Sabotage amoureux Source: Le Sabotage amoureux