We don't become geisha because we want our lives to be happy; we become geisha because we have no choice.

His face was very heavily creased, and into each crease he had tucked some worry or other, so that it wasn't really his face any longer, but more like a tree that had nests of birds in all of the branches. He had to struggle constantly to manage it and always looked worn out from the effort.

We lead our lives like water flowing down a hill, going more or less in one direction until we splash into something that forces us to find a new course.

I tried to continue, but somehow my throat made up its mind to swallow – though I can’t think what I was swallowing, unless it was a little knot of emotion I pushed back down because there was no room in my face for any more.

My mother once told me I was like water. Water can carve its way even through stone. And when trapped, water makes a new path.

At the temple there is a poem called "Loss" carved into the stone. It has three words, but the poet has scratched them out. You cannot read loss, only feel it.

The corridor couldn't have smelled more strongly of fish guts if we had actually been inside a fish.