Geisha because when I was living in Japan, I met a fellow whose mother was a geisha, and I thought that was kind of fascinating and ended up reading about the subject just about the same time I was getting interested in writing fiction.

I will think of you every time I need to be reminded that there is beauty and goodness in the world.

I cannot tell you what it is that guides us in this life; but for me, I fell toward the Chairman just as a stone must fall toward the earth. When I cut my lip and met Mr. Tanaka, when my mother died and I was cruelly sold, it was all like a stream that falls over rocky cliffs before it can reach the ocean. Even now that he is gone I have him still, in the richness of my memories.

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

Never give up; for even rivers someday wash dams away.

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

What an unbearable sorrow it would be, to realized I'd never really tasted to things I'd eaten, or seen the places I'd been. What life would I have? I would be like the dancer who had practiced since childhood for a performance she would never give.