Nagai Kafu

Nagai Kafu (1879-1959) was a Japanese writer, novelist, editor, and critic. He was one of the leading literary figure of his time. His works were influenced by French realists. He believed that literature should examine life's realities and emphasized on observation skills and truthfulness in transmittal of emotions and experience.

Wisdom & Quotes

• Life is a curse, and yet in the world of men

There is a moment of consolation, a moment of pleasure.
Don't we feel it when we read Musset's poetry?
Isn't that the feeling when we listen to Mozart?
- Flower of Grass

• Knowing this to be a worthless life to live,

Why do I keep living on?
Because this life contains something called beauty.
- Mutterings on a Gloomy Day

• Empathy is not merely the basic principle of artistic creation. It is also the only path by which one can reach the truth about life and society.
• Nature as it is - nature with nothing selected or discarded from it - cannot become a work of art.
• In the face of approaching death, from which there is no escape, is there any consolation in this incomprehensible life other than to sing about this momentary pleasure?

- Sneers

• Reading, contemplation, and observation are the three things a novelist should not neglect at any time.

- How to Write a Novel

Huda Shaarawi