Karen Tei Yamashita Quotes & Sayings

No single imagination is wild or crass or cheesy enough to compete with the collective mindlessness that propels our fascination forward. — Karen Tei Yamashita

The myth of the first world is that
development is wealth and technology progress.
It is all rubbish.
It means that you are no longer human beings
but only labor.
It means that the land you live on is not earth
but only property. — Karen Tei Yamashita

Then you are a poet?' she asked, fingering the flyer in her pocket.
'No not at all,' he waved his hand. 'I am merely a character in a poem. — Karen Tei Yamashita

Time could heal, but it wouldn't make wrongs go away. Time came back like a reminder. Time folded with memory. In a moment, everything could fold itself up, and time stand still. — Karen Tei Yamashita

Everyone's got a version of the same story, or maybe there's no such thing as the same story; it's a different story every time. — Karen Tei Yamashita

And in time we may remember, collecting every little memory, all the bits and pieces, into a larger memory, rebuilding a great layered and labyrinthine, now imagined, international hotel of many rooms, the urban experiment of a homeless community built to house the needs of temporary lives. And for what? To resist death and dementia. To haunt a disappearing landscape. To forever embed this geography with our visions and voices. To kiss the past and you good-bye, leaving the indelible spit of our DNA on still moist lips. Sweet. Sour. Salty. Bitter. — Karen Tei Yamashita

Just cuz you get to the end doesn't mean you know what happened. — Karen Tei Yamashita