[But] we accept irony through a device called metaphor. And through that we grow and become deeper human beings.

I think history is collective memories. In writing, I'm using my own memory, and I'm using my collective memory.

Something in her small eyes caught the sunlight and glistened, like a glacier on the faraway face of a mountain.

When you are used to the kind of life -of never getting anything you want- you stop knowing what it is you want.

It is my huge pleasure that my novels are translated into languages that are read among small numbers of people.

The thing I’m most afraid of is me. Of not knowing what I’m going to do. Of not knowing what I’m doing right now

No matter what form the relationship might take, he was the only person she could picture sharing her life with.

Life is so uncertain: you never know what could happen. One way to deal with that is to keep your pajamas washed.

I learned that realism can come in all shapes and sizes. The world is big enough for different values to coexist.

Why do I act like this, agreeing when I really disagree, letting people force me to do things I don't want to do?

Sometimes you’re just the sweetest thing. Like Christmas, summer vacation, and a brand-new puppy rolled into one.

No matter what they wish for, no matter how far they go, people can never be anything but themselves. That's all.

It's not right for one friend to do all the giving and the other to do all the taking: that's not real friendship.

The rain that fell on the city runs down the dark gutters and empties into the sea without even soaking the ground

The most important thing we learn at school is the fact that the most important things can't be learned at school.

If you want everything to be nice and straight all the time, then go live in a world made with a triungular ruler.

If you think God’s there, He is. If you don’t, He isn’t. And if that’s what God’s like, I wouldn’t worry about it.

One heart is not connected to another through harmony alone. They are, instead, linked deeply through their wounds

I collect records. And cats. I don't have any cats right now. But if I'm taking a walk and I see a cat, I'm happy.

Have you ever had that feeling—that you’d like to go to a whole different place and become a whole different self?

It doesn’t matter how old I get, but as long as I continue to live I’ll always discover something new about myself.

If I choose to write about sheep, it's just because I happened to write about sheep. There is no deep significance.

I didn't feel like I was in my own body; my body was just a lonely, temporary container I happened to be borrowing.

I'm not afraid to die. What I'm afraid of is having reality get the better of me, of having reality leave me behind.

It is sometimes necessary for each person. Fill up with delicious food, get drunk, sing loudly and chat frivolously.

He does not exist here, with me, but flesh that does not exist will never die, and promises unmade are never broken.

I wasn't particularly afraid of death itself. As Shakespeare said, die this year and you don't have to die the next.

I don't want to express my opinion about actual politics, because if I do, I have to be responsible for my decision.

This was something sure to be crammed full of warm secrets, like an antique clock built when peace filled the world.

I'm not a fast reader. I like to linger over each sentence, enjoying the style. If I don't enjoy the writing, I stop.

Having an object that symbolizes freedom might make a person happier than actually getting the freedom it represents.

My grandpa always said asking a question is embarrassing for a moment, but not asking is embarrassing for a lifetime.

The body is not the only target of rape. Violence does not always take a visible form, and not all wounds gush blood.

Not just beautiful, though--the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they're watching me.

If I'm going to merely ramble, maybe I should just snuggle under the warm covers, think of Miu, and play with myself.

What I think is this: You should give up looking for lost cats and start searching for the other half of your shadow.

Memories and thoughts age, just as people do. But certain thoughts can never age, and certain memories can never fade.

No matter how long you stand there examining yourself naked before a mirror, you'll never see reflected what's inside.

Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that's the essence of running, and a metaphor for life

I may be the type who manages to grab all the pointless things in life but lets the really important things slip away.

Most of the psychological differences between men and women seem to come from differences in their reproductive system

Become like a sheet of blotting paper and soak it all in. Later on you can figure out what to keep and what to unload.

Each of us possesses a tangible living soul. The system has no such thing. We must not allow the system to exploit us.

It's basically impossible for everybody's justice to prevail or everybody's happiness to triumph, so chaos takes over.

With each passing moment I'm becoming part of the past. There is no future for me, just the past steadily accumulating.

Between the time the last train leaves and the first train arrives, the place changes: it's not the same as in daytime.

The pure present is an ungraspable advance of the past devouring the future. In truth, all sensation is already memory.

Does G get angry because it follows F in the alphabet? Does page 68 in a book start a revolution because it follows 67?

Huge organizations and me don't get along. They're too inflexible, waste too much time, and have too many stupid people.

What was lost was lost. There was no retrieving it, however you schemed, no returning to how things were, no going back.

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