Well, a peach has a lovely taste and so does a mushroom, but you can't put the two together.

Grief is a most peculiar thing; we’re so helpless in the face of it. It’s like a window that will simply open of its own accord. The room grows cold, and we can do nothing but shiver. But it opens a little less each time, and a little less; and one day we wonder what has become of it.

All at once I felt so vain, like a girl posturing for the crowds as she walks along, only to discover the street is empty.

Sometimes we get through adversity only by imagining what the world might be like if our dreams should ever come true.

I never seek to defeat the man I am fighting, " he explained. "I seek to defeat his confidence. A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory. Two men are equals - true equals - only when they both have equal confidence.

A memoir provides a record not so much of the memoirist as of the memoirist's world.

She paints her face to hide her face. Her eyes are deep water. It is not for Geisha to want. It is not for geisha to feel. Geisha is an artist of the floating world. She dances, she sings. She entertains you, whatever you want. The rest is shadows, the rest is secret.