We must use whatever methods we can to understand the movement of the universe around us and time our actions so that we are not fighting the currents, but moving with them.
Arthur GoldenIf those sorts of moments would be the only pleasure life offered me, I'd be better off shutting out that one brilliant source of light to let my eyes begin to adjust to the darkness.
Arthur GoldenOccasionally in life we come upon things we can't understand, because we have never seen anything similar.
Arthur GoldenWe don't become geisha because we want our lives to be happy; we become geisha because we have no choice.
Arthur GoldenCan't you see? Every step I have taken, since I was that child on the bridge, has been to bring myself closer to you.
Arthur GoldenFrom this experience, I understood the danger of focusing only on what isn't there. What if I came to the end of my life and realized that I'd spent every day watching for a man who would never come to me? What an unbearable sorrow it would be, to realize I'd never really tasted the things I'd eaten, or seen the places I'd been, because I'd thought of nothing but the Chairman even while my life was drifting away from me. And yet if I drew my thoughts back from him, what life would I have? I would be like a dancer who had practiced since childhood for a performance she would never give.
Arthur Golden