#DeWitt2023 "I cared about colour. I cared about that bear, I did....To be fair, I wouldn't have liked to be mauled, but if he'd wanted to do me a favour he'd have shot me and left me for the bear....White drifting about and frozen solid and getting inside your skin." 390

#DeWitt2023 "You know the old joke. I suffered for my art and now it's your turn." 395 This bloke curdles my blood AND makes me roll my eyes. He's actually worse than Liberace and the real Liberace!

#DeWitt2023 "I didn't even see his arm move....He was panting as if he'd been in a worse fight; his eyes were glittering in his head. I didn't know what he would do." 372 Shocked to read these pages - grown man attacking an 11 yr old boy in the late 1990's.

#DeWitt2023 "Could my father really be that bad?....I wanted to say: but at least he's seen the world." 238

"Kambei: A samurai doesn't get so drunk that he loses his senses." -Seven Samurai, Akira Kurasawa (1954)

#TheLastSamurai #HelenDeWitt #Kurasawa

#DeWitt2023 Donald Richie wrote the English subtitles for Akira Kurosawa's films Throne of Blood (1957), Red Beard (1965), Kagemusha (1980) and Dreams (1990)! #Kurasawa #DonaldRichie #LafcadioHearn #TheLastSamurai #JapaneseTranslation

#DeWitt2023 "One of the attributes of all of his heroes, beginning with Sugata, is that they are all unformed in just this way. For this reason, all of his pictures are about education- the education of the hero." -D. Richie, "The Films of Akira Kurasawa," as mentioned on p.214

#DeWitt2023 "Today I could have finished the Argonautica." Age 6.
I am grateful to my elementary school teachers in NYC Catholic schools who let me read personal books after I finished my classwork early.

#DeWitt2023 "Today was my 5th day of school. It was boring.
Today is Saturday....I told S. I thought I should do some more French & Greek & Latin & Hebrew & Arabic...because apparently I will not get to do them at school until I am 12 & I was afraid I would forget them by then." Ludo, age 6.
#TheLastSamurai #HelenDeWitt