When we fight upstream against a rocky undercurrent, every foothold takes on a kind of urgency.
A memoir provides a record not so much of the memoirist as of the memoirist's world.
We don't become geisha because we want our lives to be happy; we become geisha because we have no choice.
Of course, a sign doesn't mean anything unless you know how to interpret it.
Friendship is a precious thing, Sayuri. One mustn't throw it away.
Here again, I saw life in all its noisy excitement passing me by.