70 Kaneki Quotes from Japan’s "Tokyo Ghoul"

“Tokyo Ghoul” is one of the most popular manga series where its main protagonist, Kaneki, undergoes a major transformation both physically and emotionally. As he tries to figure out where he belongs, he reaches some profound realizations about life. Here are 20 quotes from him for you to reflect on.

Kaneki is the main protagonist of “Tokyo Ghoul”, a Japanese dark fantasy manga series. Although he was a normal college student at the beginning of "Tokyo Ghoul", Kaneki went through a drastic transformation when he turned into a Ghoul.

The word Ghoul is translated approximately to eater species. It is a carnivorous and cannibalistic humanoid species that is only able to feed on the flesh of humans and other ghouls.

Along the way, Kaneki says some memorable lines about life in general. We gathered 70 of the most poignant of these quotes for you to reflect on.

Kaneki's quote: “I was wrong. I wasn’t eating ghouls. I’m the one who was being eaten.” | Image: AmoDays

PAINFUL KANEKI QUOTES

“I’m begging you, don’t make me a killer!” — Kaneki

“The pain you feel today will be the strength you’ll have tomorrow.” — Kaneki

“I was wrong. I wasn’t eating ghouls. I’m the one who was being eaten.” — Kaneki

“Upon entering an open area was the scent of rotting flowers and in the middle of the flowerbed, he stood… Without anyone saying a thing, without his name given, like an unsolved puzzle falling into place by itself, just by seeing that figure, I — understood exactly who I faced. The CCG’s reaper. The undefeated ghoul investigator.” — Kaneki

“It’s better to be hurt than to hurt others. Nice people can be happy with just that.” — Kaneki

Kaneki's quote: “The pain you feel today will be the strength you’ll have tomorrow.” | Image: AmoDays

“Pain tells you when you have been wounded badly.” — Kaneki

“But you know what the best thing about pain is? It tells you you’re not dead yet!” — Kaneki

“Pain is your friend, pain is your ally.” — Kaneki

“So when you close a book you’ve just finished reading and return to reality, all the pain and sadness you couldn’t put into words before are still there on those pages, and that can be comforting.” — Kaneki

“Life is sad, empty. But despite knowing we will one day be bereft, despite knowing we will one day disappear, we still strive in wretched ways. We still wish to be beautiful.” — Kaneki

Kaneki's quote: “I don’t care about taking the side of those I cannot see. I fight for those close to me. And it just so happens that they’re mostly ghouls.” | Image: AmoDays

KANEKI QUOTES ABOUT FIGHTING AND PERSEVERING

“Had he done this alone?… It’s a lie… Koma… Irimi… After all that… No matter how I tried to rouse my will to fight with hatred, more than sorrow, more than rage, the emotion that arose within me was despair. Because ‘my turn’ was next.” — Kaneki

“I will carry on the last wish of the previous king, and create a world where ghouls and humans can understand each other.” — Kaneki

“I want to be a bridge, telling ghouls how people feel and letting people know what ghouls think and feel.” — Kaneki

“Because there’s nothing but hatred between the two groups now, but if each had an understanding of the other, I think that could change.” — Kaneki

“I don’t care about taking the side of those I cannot see. I fight for those close to me. And it just so happens that they’re mostly ghouls.” — Kaneki

Kaneki's quote: “Had he done this alone?… It’s a lie… Koma… Irimi… After all that… No matter how I tried to rouse my will to fight with hatred, more than sorrow, more than rage, the emotion that arose within me was despair. Because ‘my turn’ was next.” | Image: AmoDays

“I know there are ghouls who only see humans as targets to be preyed upon, and on the other hand, there are humans who have decided that ghouls are only inhuman monsters, but I don’t think either of those is correct.” — Kaneki

“Yes, some ghouls walk a path that leaves sorrow in their wake, but just like humans, we can choose a different path altogether. We have a lot to learn, both your kind and mine.” — Kaneki

“I understand the feeling of sinking into pleasure. In some ways, it’s only natural that some ghouls like Rize-san exist. However, I’m not going to lose sight of myself. That’s my way of fighting.” — Kaneki

KANEKI QUOTES ABOUT LIFE

“Eventually, you will break and become useless, once that happens, you’ll break and become discarded.” — Kaneki

“We need to stop fighting and start talking. Because when it comes to the state of the world, you can’t point your finger at ghouls or humans. We’re all to blame.” — Kaneki

Kaneki's quote: “I will carry on the last wish of the previous king, and create a world where ghouls and humans can understand each other.” | Image: AmoDays

“Sometimes good people make bad choices. It doesn’t mean they are bad people. It means they’re human.” — Kaneki

“That’s who we are. Steal and be stolen. Imprison and be imprisoned. Follow and be followed. Do and be done. Affirm and negate over and over. We fight ceaselessly to save ourselves from loss.” — Kaneki

“We have to break a chain of grief.” — Kaneki

“All the liabilities in this world are due to the inadequacies of the person involved.” — Kaneki

“Never trust anyone too much. Remember, the devil was once an angel.” — Kaneki

Kaneki's quote: “I want to be a bridge, telling ghouls how people feel and letting people know what ghouls think and feel.” | Image: AmoDays

“Sometimes you’re confronted with the ugly parts of yourself that you don’t want to see, but books can also tell you a lot about the things you didn’t notice when you’re just trying to get through somehow.” — Kaneki

“As soon as I began to think that somewhere inside me, I myself began wishing for it. Wishing that I’d live.” — Kaneki

“Human relationships are chemical reactions. If you have a reaction, then you can never return back to your previous state of being.” — Kaneki

“Why is it that the beautiful things are entwined more deeply with death than with life?” — Kaneki

“Donato has to keep proving himself. He wants to prove just how valuable he is. Isn’t that the case with you as well?” — Kaneki

Kaneki's quote: “I know there are ghouls who only see humans as targets to be preyed upon, and on the other hand, there are humans who have decided that ghouls are only inhuman monsters, but I don’t think either of those is correct.” | Image: AmoDays

“Fiction books give the reader a chance to step away from their own reality and into the shoes of the characters, and they show you a world that isn’t the one you already know. And sometimes, the story’s not so different from your own, and it lets you get closer to your own feelings.” — Kaneki

KANEKI QUOTES ABOUT HIMSELF

“What’s wrong isn’t me, what’s wrong is the world!” — Kaneki

“As my fingers and toes re-grew like fingernails or hair over and over and over and over… and over again, every single time I got the feeling that I truly, truly, truly was a monster.” — Kaneki

“I have to learn by experiencing things myself.. that’s all I can do.” — Kaneki

Kaneki's quote: “As soon as I began to think that somewhere inside me, I myself began wishing for it. Wishing that I’d live.” | Image: AmoDays

“Anyone who tries to take my friends from me will get no mercy.” — Kaneki

“I’m tired of not being able to do anything.” — Kaneki

“I wanna be nice, but everyone annoys me.” — Kaneki

“I know you may not believe this, but I’m human. And yet… I want to eat this so bad, I can’t help it. But if I do, I won’t be human anymore.” — Kaneki

“I keep it all inside because I’d rather the pain destroy me than everyone else.” — Kaneki

Kaneki's quote: “You’re wrong. It’s not the world that’s messed up; it’s those of us in it.” | Image AmoDays

“This world is survival of the fittest. The strong eat.’ ‘Who is strong?’ I am. Me.” — Kaneki

“I don’t want someone to see the good in me. I want someone who sees the bad and still wants me.” — Kaneki

“Take me by the hand, as if to fill the niches in the memories in my brain fluid. Without even hesitating, we kept walking. Nasty clouds floated in the sky, I know it will happen to me the next time I wake up.” — Kaneki

“I’m not the protagonist of a novel or anything. I’m just a college 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.” — Kaneki

“The fear of waking up and knowing nothing. Do you know what that’s like? How I can only cling to what’s given to me? How? I don’t even know my own parents. Where did I even come from? Who am I?” — Kaneki

Kaneki's quote: “We need to stop fighting and start talking. Because when it comes to the state of the world, you can’t point your finger at ghouls or humans. We’re all to blame.” | Image: AmoDays

“My severe injuries had healed and the sweet taste of blood coated my mouth. I kept walking, my goal vague… trying to dispel the building unease in my chest…” — Kaneki

“I led me by the hand as if to fill the niches in the memories in my oozing brain fluid. Without even a destination, we kept walking. Disgusting clouds were floating in the sky.” — Kaneki

“Human meat, there is no way I can eat it. How can I possibly eat it because I’m human! I’m different from you, monsters!” — Kaneki

“You’re wrong. It’s not the world that’s messed up; it’s those of us in it.” — Kaneki

“I really believed I was a kind-hearted human, but I was mistaken. There were a few humans that were important to me, but I couldn’t care less about the majority of them.” — Kaneki

Kaneki's quote: “Sometimes, good people make bad choices. It doesn’t mean they are bad people. It means they’re human.” | Image: AmoDays

“Why was it that I was seeing beauty in death rather than life? Strangely, I thought he was beautiful.” — Kaneki

SHORT KANEKI QUOTES

“I won’t forgive anyone who threatens the peace in my life.” — Kaneki

“You think something like that would hurt, after all I’ve been through?” — Kaneki

“I already know what will happen to me the next time I wake up.” — Kaneki

Kaneki's quote: “I won’t forgive anyone who threatens the peace in my life.” | Image: AmoDays

“I won’t pull back, I will press forward, like a centipede.” — Kaneki

“I’m not that much of a pushover, greenhorn.” — Kaneki

“If you want to curse something, curse your own weakness.” — Kaneki

“I am the One-Eyed King.” — Kaneki

“I want to give my life for someone else.” — Kaneki

Kaneki's quote: “I think what’s necessary is the ‘right distance.’ Instead of mutually tramping on each others’ existence, we should just respect each other a little more.” | Image: AmoDays

MORE KANEKI QUOTES TO REFLECT ON

“Furuta, I was the sort of human you’d find anywhere. The kind that just loves reading. But on that fateful day with Rize, I was sundered from the human world, and everything began to change. My life was threatened. I was horrifically tortured, unable to achieve what I wanted. I even lost, but I found a new place I belonged.” — Kaneki

“It’s because we’re the same. Isolated from society, able to consume a few specific things. They remind me of myself.” — Kaneki

“I think what’s necessary is the ‘right distance.’ Instead of mutually tramping on each others’ existence, we should just respect each other a little more.” — Kaneki

“Cain used to be seen as evil, you know. Well, I mean, he can be understood as being ‘evil’ now, too. But if you just think about Cain, you can kind of see that he had to do what he did to be able to carry on, I think.” — Kaneki

“In exchange for the pleasure of living as a person that ghouls can have, we receive this instead. We’re overwhelmed by our appetites.” — Kaneki

Kaneki's quote: “Furuta, I was the sort of human you’d find anywhere. The kind that just loves reading. But on that fateful day with Rize, I was sundered from the human world, and everything began to change. My life was threatened. I was horrifically tortured, unable to achieve what I wanted. I even lost, but I found a new place I belonged.” | Image: AmoDays

“Black and blue, turning and over-turning the things I’d chosen countless times, forever repeating the same actions. Ungainly, awkward, indecisive, weak, endlessly useless. That is what I am.” — Kaneki

“Why? Why am I doing this? I was wrong to eat that meat after all. That was what I thought, and I desperately looked for another way.” — Kaneki

“Because you are the same as Donato. All you’re doing is indulging in this twisted self-value that you have for yourself. And if you don’t, you won’t last.” — Kaneki

Kaneki's quote: “It’s because we’re the same. Isolated from society, able to consume a few specific things. They remind me of myself.”| Image: AmoDays

“Even if my presence is unwanted, I still want to be involved with both humans and ghouls.” — Kaneki

“Disoriented, I had failed to comprehend the scene before my eyes. It was not anything like flowers but a large amount of death. Had he done this alone? It’s a lie.” — Kaneki

Author Ishida Sui created this series to chronicle Kaneki’s life struggles while he tries to figure out where he belongs now that he is no longer human. Kaneki fights to accept his new reality as a ghoul. He later puts together a team with the goal of protecting the ones he cares about.

Kaneki's quote: “Why? Why am I doing this? I was wrong to eat that meat after all. That was what I thought, and I desperately looked for another way.” | Image: AmoDays

Regardless of “Tokyo Ghoul” and Kaneki being fictional, some of Kaneki’s struggles are relatable to our own. So whenever you want to reflect on your own life challenges, these quotes are a great pit stop.

If you enjoyed these quotes, you’ll enjoy this compilation of quotes from late rapper, Lil Peep.