“ Things are just things. They can't bring back the dead. it just makes me feel better. Banana Yoshimoto
“ Even when I try to stir myself up, I just get irritated because I can't make anything come out. And in the middle of the night I lie here thinking about all this. If I don't get back on track somehow,… Banana Yoshimoto
“ Once you've recognized your own limits, you've raised yourself to a higher level of being, since you're closer to the real you... Banana Yoshimoto
“ The way we think may be completely different, but you and I are an ancient, archetypal couple, the original man and woman. We are the model for Adam and Eve. For all couples in love, there comes a mom… Banana Yoshimoto
“ We've done so much together, wherever I go and whatever I see, I think of you. Newborn babies; the pattern on the plate that you can see under a paper-thin slice of sashimi; fireworks in August. The m… Banana Yoshimoto
“ It occurred to me that if I were a ghost, this ambiance was what I'd miss most: the ordinary, day-to-day bustle of the living. Ghosts long, I'm sure, for the stupidest, most unremarkable things. Banana Yoshimoto
“ I wonder what it felt to move to a country where you didn't grow up. I had thought about that often since my sister got married. Do you become a character in a story native to that land, or do you, so… Banana Yoshimoto
“ It'll be this kind of deep blue”she said. “The kind of color that somehow sucks your eyes and your ears and all your words —the color of a completely closed-in night Banana Yoshimoto
“ Nakajima's presence didn't put any pressure on me, either. Quite the opposite: there was a warmth in the core of my chest when he was around. Banana Yoshimoto
“ I didn't care whether I had gotten dressed, or what state my hair was in or anything– it didn't matter. I felt close to him, and I'd come to regard him as just another part of the scenery. Banana Yoshimoto
“ The place I like best in this world is the kitchen. No matter where it is, no matter what kind, if it’s a kitchen, if it’s a place where they make food, it’s fine with me. Ideally it should be well br… Banana Yoshimoto
“ Things that don't matter at all to one person can hurt another so deeply it seems as bad as dying. Banana Yoshimoto
“ I was frightened of so many things, in my vanity, that ultimately i couldn't protect myself any other way. Try not to be like that, okay? Be sure to keep your tummy warm, try to relax, both your heart… Banana Yoshimoto
“ As I grow older, much older, I will experience many things, and I will hit rock bottom again and again. Again and again I will suffer; again and again I will get back on my feet. I will not be defeate… Banana Yoshimoto
“ There was a real sense of comfort but at the same time it felt oddly tense. The feeling that every little things we said, these conversations, at any moment, they could stop being possible, and so the… Banana Yoshimoto
“ Whenever you get something in this world, you lose something too — that's just the way things work. Banana Yoshimoto
“ To the extent that I had come to understand that despair does not necessarily result in annihilation, that one can go on as usual in spite of it, I had become hardened. Was this what it means to be an… Banana Yoshimoto
“ If a person hasn't ever experienced true despair, she grows old never knowing how to evaluate where she is in life; never understanding what joy really is. Banana Yoshimoto
“ On nights like this when the air is so clear, you end up saying things you ordinarily wouldn’t. Without even noticing what you’re doing, you open up your heart and just start talking to the person nex… Banana Yoshimoto
