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

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

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.

It's less a matter of looking the other way than of closing our eyes to what we can't stop from happening.

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

Sadness was a very heavy thing.

Geisha is always called beautiful even if she is not.