30 Best Tokyo Ghoul Quotes — Kaneki, Tsukiyama, Hide & The Horror of Becoming the Other

"1000 minus 7 is 993. 993 minus 7 is 986. 986 minus 7..."

— Ken Kaneki, Tokyo Ghoul (Chapter 62 / Episode 12) — The torture math that turned a boy into a ghoul.

"I'm not the protagonist of a novel or anything. I'm a university student who likes to read, like you could find anywhere. But if, for argument's sake, you were to write a story with me in the lead role, it would certainly be a tragedy."

— Ken Kaneki, Tokyo Ghoul (opening monologue) — The thesis of the entire series, spoken before he knows it.

"Sometimes, what looks like a sacrifice at first glance can be a way of protecting oneself."

— Ken Kaneki, Tokyo Ghoul — The Jason arc insight.

"If an angelic life of purity is not within my reach, then I must become even more demonic, even more depraved than anyone else."

— Ken Kaneki, Tokyo Ghoul — The post-Jason resolution.

"Mother once told me: 'Rather than a person who hurts others, become a person who gets hurt.' That's how I was raised."

— Ken Kaneki, Tokyo Ghoul — The lesson Kaneki abandoned in white-haired form.

"The one who should change isn't the world... it's you."

— Ken Kaneki, Tokyo Ghoul — The ghoul's post-awakening epiphany.

"I am a ghoul."

— Ken Kaneki, Tokyo Ghoul — The identity he spent the whole series resisting, then accepted.

"The world is beautiful when you learn to appreciate the flavor of life itself."

— Shuu Tsukiyama, Tokyo Ghoul — The Gourmet's ambiguous moral compass.

"Tres bien!"

— Shuu Tsukiyama, Tokyo Ghoul — The French-sprinkled signature of the Rose.

"If you want to eat something, eat it immediately. If you die tomorrow, you won't get the chance."

— Shuu Tsukiyama, Tokyo Ghoul — The Gourmet's surprisingly profound carpe diem.

"I know, Kaneki. I've always known."

— Hide Nagachika, Tokyo Ghoul — The line that turned the sewer scene into a fandom-defining tragedy.

"A friend is someone you can't betray even if you want to."

— Hide Nagachika, Tokyo Ghoul — The simple, unshakable definition.

"Kaneki, your hair..."

— Hide Nagachika, Tokyo Ghoul — The first words after reuniting with white-haired Kaneki.

"All you have to do is make up your mind and live."

— Touka Kirishima, Tokyo Ghoul — The tough-love lesson to depressive Kaneki.

"Kaneki, you idiot. Who told you to go die alone?"

— Touka Kirishima, Tokyo Ghoul — The Anteiku waitress's tsundere farewell.

"Even if you forget me... I won't forget you."

— Touka Kirishima, Tokyo Ghoul:re — The reunion across amnesia.

"There are no heroes in this world. It's a world of humans and ghouls, and both are selfish."

— Rize Kamishiro, Tokyo Ghoul — The Binge Eater's cosmic shrug.

"We need to accept that what we are is what we are."

— Yoshimura, Tokyo Ghoul — The Anteiku manager's gentle wisdom.

"Coffee is the only thing we consume that isn't human. A tiny indulgence."

— Yoshimura, Tokyo Ghoul — The Anteiku philosophy in a single observation.

"You'll become a Reaper, too, eventually."

— Arima Kishou, Tokyo Ghoul:re — The CCG's angel of death to Haise Sasaki.

"Become the king they need."

— Arima Kishou, Tokyo Ghoul:re — The dying wish that repurposed Kaneki.

"Eliminating a ghoul in a humane way is the first step to humanity's salvation."

— Juuzou Suzuya, Tokyo Ghoul — The CCG recruit's unsettling cheer.

"My name is Haise Sasaki... I think."

— Haise Sasaki, Tokyo Ghoul:re — The amnesiac Kaneki's uncertain introduction.

"I'm not going to remember... that's a choice too."

— Haise Sasaki, Tokyo Ghoul:re — The refusal of memory as agency.

"Something's changed. Something's always changing."

— Ken Kaneki, Tokyo Ghoul:re — The dragon-era reflection.

"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster."

— Nietzsche (Tokyo Ghoul epigraph), Tokyo Ghoul — Chapter 1's opening quote, the series' spiritual key.

"If we don't devour, we'll be the ones devoured. Hunger is the world."

— Ghoul creed (various speakers), Tokyo Ghoul — The survival ethic of Ishida's world.

"The most painful thing is not being able to tell anyone."

— Ken Kaneki, Tokyo Ghoul — The loneliness that defines the first arc.

"It's because I'm not strong. It's because I've always been weak. That's why I've made up my mind: I have to become stronger."

— Ken Kaneki, Tokyo Ghoul — The post-torture vow.