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

Nothing in life is ever as simple as we imagine.

My tears simply broke through the fragile wallthat had held them, and with a terrible feeling of shame, I laid my head upon the table and let them drain out of me.

His face was very heavily creased, and into each crease he had tucked some worry or other, so that it wasn't really his face any longer, but more like a tree that had nests of birds in all of the branches. He had to struggle constantly to manage it and always looked worn out from the effort.

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

If a few minutes of suffering could make me so angry, what would years of it do? Even a stone can be worn down with enough rain.

Perhaps it seems odd that a casual meeting on the street could have brought about such change. But sometimes life is like that isn't it