If Mother and Mameha couldn't come to an agreement, I would remain a maid all my life just as surely as a turtle remains a turtle

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

Even stone can be worn down with enough rain.

You know, the men go to tea houses with the expectation that they will have a nice quiet evening and not read about it the next morning in the newspaper.

I could no more have stopped myself from feeling that sadness than you could stop yourself from smelling an apple that has been cut open on the table before you.

It was what we Japanese called the onion life, peeling away a layer at a time and crying all the while.

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.