A mouse who wishes to fool the cat doesn't simply scamper out of its hole whenever it feels the slightest urge.

My feelings of disgust had been so loud within me, they’d nearly drowned out everything else.

Seeing him again after so long awakened something inside me. I was surprised to find myself feeling sad rather than joyful, as I would have imagined.

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

I had to wonder if men were so blinded by beauty that they would feel privileged to live their lives with an actual demon, so long as it was a beautiful demon.

How many times already had I encountered the painful lesson that although we may wish for the barb to be pulled from our flesh, it leaves a welt that doesn't heal?

The swan who goes on living in its parents' tree will die; this is why those who are beautiful and talented bear the burden of finding their own way in the world.