Frases de David Mitchell

"Okinawa"
Ghostwritten (1999)

Nook Edition)
"Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery", p. 342 (Nook edition)
Cloud Atlas (2004)

The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing, Monday, 13th January —, p. 528
Cloud Atlas (2004)
Contexto: Scholars discern motions in history & formulate these motions into rules that govern the rises & falls of civilizations. My belief runs contrary, however. To wit: history admits no rules; only outcomes.
What precipitates outcomes? Vicious acts & virtuous acts.
What precipitates acts? Belief.
Belief is both prize & battlefield, within the mind & in the mind’s mirror, the world. If we believe humanity is a ladder of tribes, a colosseum of confrontation, exploitation & bestiality, such a humanity is surely brought into being, & history’s Horroxes, Boer-haaves & Gooses shall prevail. You & I, the moneyed, the privileged, the fortunate, shall not fare so badly in this world, provided our luck holds. What of it if our consciences itch? Why undermine the dominance of our race, our gunships, our heritage & our legacy? Why fight the “natural” (oh, weaselly word!) order of things?
Why? Because of this: — one fine day, a purely predatory world shall consume itself. Yes, the Devil shall take the hindmost until the foremost is the hindmost. In an individual, selfishness uglifies the soul; for the human species, selfishness is extinction.
Is this the doom written within our nature?
If we believe that humanity may transcend tooth & claw, if we believe divers races & creeds can share this world as peaceably as the orphans share their candlenut tree, if we believe leaders must be just, violence muzzled, power accountable & the riches of the Earth & its Oceans shared equitably, such a world will come to pass. I am not deceived. It is the hardest of worlds to make real. Torturous advances won over generations can be lost by a single stroke of a myopic president’s pen or a vainglorious general’s sword.

"The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing", p. 528
Cloud Atlas (2004)

"An Orison of Sonmi~451", p. 199 (Nook Edition)
Cloud Atlas (2004)

"Sloosha's Crossin' an Ev'rythin' After", p. 308
Cloud Atlas (2004)
Contexto: Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies, an' tho' a cloud's shape nor hue nor size don't stay the same, it's still a cloud an' so is a soul. Who can say where the cloud's blowed from or who the soul'll be 'morrow? Only Sonmi the east an' the compass an' the atlas, yay, only the atlas o' clouds.

Interview in The Japan Times Online, (24 June 2007) https://archive.is/20121219091415/search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fb20070624a1.html
Contexto: What is this thing, "imagination?" A muscle that can be "forced" or "stretched"? Or something immune to the ethos of ganbaru [grit it out, or strive for one's best]? Like the relativist's view of light, it is both wave and particle, depending on what you want it to be. The verb "to imagine" is both active and passive, as in "Steve imagined his future," and "Such a future was never imagined." So, I work on my novel by imagining the world of 18th-century Nagasaki and its people and their fears and desires, as an act of will, and a lot of will is involved, believe me. However, I could ganbaru until I'm blue in the face. If my imagination doesn't work "passively" or even "intransitively," at its own behest rather than mine, and come up with cliche-demolishing twists of phrase and turns of plot and happy accidents and unexpected reactions from characters, then the book will be sterile. Well-written with luck, and even intelligent, but sterile. (...) Imagination is what makes art fertile.

"Clear Island"
Ghostwritten (1999)

"Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After", p. 286
Cloud Atlas (2004)

"Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After", p. 286
Cloud Atlas (2004)

"Letters from Zedelghem", p. 78 (Nook Edition)
Cloud Atlas (2004)

The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing, Monday, 13th January —, p. 528
Cloud Atlas (2004)

Interview in Stop Smiling magazine (29 June 2007) http://www.stopsmilingonline.com/story_detail.php?id=841

"Letters from Zedelghem", p. 462
Cloud Atlas (2004)

"Letters from Zedelghem", p. 462
Cloud Atlas (2004)

"An Orison of Sonmi~451", p. 282 (Nook Edition)
Cloud Atlas (2004)

"The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing", p. 24 (Nook Edition)
Cloud Atlas (2004)

"An Orison of Sonmi~451", p. 305 (Nook Edition)
Cloud Atlas (2004)

Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?
The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing, Monday, 13th January —, p. 528-529.
Cloud Atlas (2004)

"An Orison of Sonmi~451", p. 168 (Nook Edition)
Cloud Atlas (2004)

Part 6
number9dream (2001)

The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing, Monday, 13th January —, p. 528
Cloud Atlas (2004)
Contexto: Scholars discern motions in history & formulate these motions into rules that govern the rises & falls of civilizations. My belief runs contrary, however. To wit: history admits no rules; only outcomes.
What precipitates outcomes? Vicious acts & virtuous acts.
What precipitates acts? Belief.
Belief is both prize & battlefield, within the mind & in the mind’s mirror, the world. If we believe humanity is a ladder of tribes, a colosseum of confrontation, exploitation & bestiality, such a humanity is surely brought into being, & history’s Horroxes, Boer-haaves & Gooses shall prevail. You & I, the moneyed, the privileged, the fortunate, shall not fare so badly in this world, provided our luck holds. What of it if our consciences itch? Why undermine the dominance of our race, our gunships, our heritage & our legacy? Why fight the “natural” (oh, weaselly word!) order of things?
Why? Because of this: — one fine day, a purely predatory world shall consume itself. Yes, the Devil shall take the hindmost until the foremost is the hindmost. In an individual, selfishness uglifies the soul; for the human species, selfishness is extinction.
Is this the doom written within our nature?
If we believe that humanity may transcend tooth & claw, if we believe divers races & creeds can share this world as peaceably as the orphans share their candlenut tree, if we believe leaders must be just, violence muzzled, power accountable & the riches of the Earth & its Oceans shared equitably, such a world will come to pass. I am not deceived. It is the hardest of worlds to make real. Torturous advances won over generations can be lost by a single stroke of a myopic president’s pen or a vainglorious general’s sword.

"Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After", p. 286
Cloud Atlas (2004)

"Letters from Zedelghem", p. 64 (Nook Edition)
Cloud Atlas (2004)

"Letters from Zedelghem", p. 75
Cloud Atlas (2004)

"Letters from Zedelghem"
Cloud Atlas (2004)

"The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish", p. 312 (Nook edition)
Cloud Atlas (2004)

"The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish", p. 389
Cloud Atlas (2004)

"Letters from Zedelghem", p. 462
Cloud Atlas (2004)