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Lafcadio Hearn

27 June 1850-26 September 1904

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Art is proved to be great art when it is generally true and does not fall into the misapprehensions to which minor art is liable.

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Art is a kind of haunting — there is something ghostly in all great art

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Japan is a place where things are not simply manufactured, but caressed into existence.

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In Japan , everything is upon a smaller and daintier scale than with us, a world where all movement is slow and voices are hushed. It is a realization of the old dream of a World of Elves.

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Kissing is, in Japan, a proof of affection but not love. Japanese mothers kiss their children but Japanese lovers do not exchange caresses of the lips.

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The Smile is, for the Japanese, a kind of polite smile which at first seems to suggest callousness but in fact originates in an interest in not wanting to burden another with one's own problems.