“ In a time like this, let us trust in God even more. To trust when life is easy is no trust. Joy Kogawa
“ Some people, Aunt Emily answered sharply, are so busy seeing all sides of every issue that they neutralize concern and prevent necessary action. There's no strength in seeing all sides unless you can… Joy Kogawa
“ Gentle Mother, we were lost together in our silences. Our wordlessness was our mutual destruction. Joy Kogawa
“ Don't deny the past. Remember everything. If you're bitter, be bitter. Cry it out! Scream! Denial is gangrene. Joy Kogawa
“ Where do any of us come from in this cold country? Oh Canada, whether you admitted it or not, we come from you we come from you. From the same soil, the slugs and slime and bogs and twigs and roots. W… Joy Kogawa
“ Elsewhere, people like Aunt Emily clack away at their typewriters, spreading words like buckshot, aiming at the shadow in the sky. Joy Kogawa
“ Once I came across two ideographs for the word "love." The first contained the root words "heart" and "hand" and "action"-love as hands and heart in action together. The other ideograph, for "passiona… Joy Kogawa
“ Life is so short, I said sighing, the past so long. Shouldn't we turn the page and move on? The past is the future, Aunt Emily shot back Joy Kogawa
“ From my years of teaching I know it's the children who say nothing who are in trouble more than the ones who complain. Joy Kogawa
“ Some memories, too, might better be forgotten. didn't Obasan once say, it is better to forget? what purpose is served by hauling forth the jar of inedible food? if it is not seen, it does not horrify.… Joy Kogawa
“ We're a lower order of people in one breath we are damned for being unassailable and the next there is fear that we'll assimilate. ... If we are educated, the complaint is that we will cease being the… Joy Kogawa
“ I hate to admit it, she said, but for all we hear about the States, Canada's capacity for racism seems even worse. Worse? The American Japanese were interned as we were in Canada, and sent off to conc… Joy Kogawa
