Quotes by "Banana Yoshimoto"

Love is the kind of thing that's already happening by the time you notice it, that's how it works, and no matter how old you get, that doesn't change. Except that you can break it up into two entirely distinct types -- love where there's an end in sight and love where there isn't.

No matter where you are, you're always a bit on your own, always an outsider.

When was it I realized that, on this truly dark and solitary path we all walk, the only way we can light is our own? Although I was raised with love, I was always lonely. Someday, without fail, everyone will disappear, scattered into the blackness of time.

But I have my life, I’m living it. It’s twisted, exhausting, uncertain, and full of guilt, but nonetheless, there’s something there.

Everything that had happened was shockingly beautiful, enough to make you crazy.

Again and again I will suffer; again and again I will get back on my feet. I will not be defeated. I won't let my spirit be destroyed.

Everything in life has some good in it. And when something awful happens, the goodness stands out even more--it's sad, but that's the truth.

No matter what, I want to continue living with the awareness that I will die. Without that, I am not alive.

Why is it we have so little choice? We live like the lowliest worms. Always defeated - defeated we make dinner, we eat, we sleep. Everyone we love is dying. Sill, to cease living is unacceptable.

Non ricordavo più se in passato mi fosse già accaduto, ma nell'affrontare il buio che ognuno ha dentro di sé dopo una ferita profonda, distrutta dalla stanchezza, all'improvviso un'energia sconosciuta aveva cominciato a riemergere.

I wanted to hold everything in place with my thin little arm and my weak spirit. I wanted to do what I could with my unreliable body to try and deal with all the many scary things that were going to start happening to us from now on. I wanted to try.

Living like that utterly convinced me of the extreme limitations of language. I was just a child then, so I had only an intuitive understanding of the degree to which one losses control of words once they are spoken or written. It was then that I first felt a deep curiosity about language, and understood it as a tool that encompasses both a single moment and eternity.

Preparavo l'apertura, facevo le pulizie, sopportavo la fatica fisica e combattevo la stanchezza. Minimizzavo i pensieri legati al futuro. Mi sforzavo di risolvere le piccole seccature, pensavo alle cose positive, cercavo di non aspettarmi improbabili periodi di grande lavoro, risolvevo i problemi in modo realistico...

I never tell my boyfriend that I'm busy when I'm not. No matter how effective they are, cheap techniques like that just don't agree with me. So it's always okay, it's always all right. In my opinion the surest way to hook a man is to be as open with him as possible.

Nakajima’s past would always be there, so the foundation could crumble at any moment. That’s what happens, I realized, when people destroy other people.

We ran into lots of old friends. Friends from elementary school, junior high school, high school. Everyone had matured in their own way, and even as we stood face to face with them they seemed like people from dreams, sudden glimpses through the fences of our tangled memories. We smiled and waved, exchanged a few words, and then walked on in our separate directions.

8I ricordi veramente belli continuano a vivere e a splendere per sempre, pulsando dolorosamente assieme al tempo che passa.

If I were really in love, I don’t think I could have said that. I probably would have tried to toy with his feelings a bit more, or maybe I would have had trouble finding the words. But all I felt then was a desire to help. And while I didn’t yet know the reason, it frightened me much more to think of him getting hurt than it did to think of someone else getting hurt.

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 moment when a man gazes at a woman with the very same kind of realization. It is an infinite helix, the dance of two souls resonating, like the twist of DNA, like the vast universe.