# Quote — Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask

> That day, the instant I looked upon the picture, my entire being trembled with some pagan joy. My blood soared up; my loins swelled as though in wrath. The monstrous part of me that was on the point of bursting awaited my use of it with unprecedented ardour, upbraiding me for my ignorance, panting indignantly. My hands, completely unconsciously, began a motion they had never been taught. I felt a secret, radiant something rise swift-footed to the attack from inside me. Suddenly it burst forth, bringing with it a blinding intoxication...

- Author: [Yukio Mishima](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yukio-mishima.md)
- Book: [Confessions of a Mask](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yukio-mishima/confessions-of-a-mask.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Yukio_Mishima#Confessions_of_a_Mask_(1949)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/yukio-mishima/confessions-of-a-mask/that-day-the

## More from this book

> My "act" has ended by becoming an integral part of my nature, I told myself. It's no longer an act. My knowledge that I am masquerading as a normal person has even corroded whatever of normality I originally possessed, ending by making me tell myself over and over again that it too was nothing but a pretense of normality. To say it another way, I'm becoming the sort of person who can't believe in anything except the counterfeit.

p. 153 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yukio-mishima/confessions-of-a-mask/my-act-has.md)

> The arrows have eaten into the tense, fragrant, youthful flesh and are about to consume his body from within with flames of supreme agony and ecstasy. But there is no flowing blood, nor yet the host of arrows seen in other pictures of Sebastian’s martyrdom. Instead, two lone arrows cast their tranquil and graceful shadows upon the smoothness of his skin, like the shadows of a bough falling upon a marble stairway...

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yukio-mishima/confessions-of-a-mask/the-arrows-have.md)

> At no time are we ever in such complete possession of a journey, down to its last nook and cranny, as when we are busy with preparations for it. After that, there remains only the journey itself, which is nothing but the process through which we lose our ownership of it.

p. 118 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yukio-mishima/confessions-of-a-mask/at-no-time.md)