Friendship is a precious thing, Sayuri. One mustn't throw it away.

Now I know that our world is no more permanent than a wave rising on the ocean. Whatever our struggles and triumphs, however we may suffer them, all too soon they bleed into a wash, just like watery ink on paper.

I stumbled out into the courtyard to try to flee my misery, but of course we can never flee the misery that is within us.

Some people have difficulty telling the difference between something great and something they've simply heard of.

We all know that a winter scene, though it may be covered over one day, with even the trees dressed in shawls of snow, will be unrecognizable the following spring. Yet I never imagined such a thing could occur within our very selves.

Here's the thing: this eel spends its entire life trying to find a home, and what do you think women have inside them? Caves, where the eels like to live...when they find a cave they like, the wriggle around inside it for a while to be sure that...well, to be sure it's a nice cave, I suppose. And when they've made up their minds that it's comfortable, they mark the cave as their territory...by spitting.

Hopes are like hair ornaments. Girls want to wear too many of them. When they become old women they look silly wearing even one.