of course the pace of change never slows, even when we've convinced ourselves it will.

I stumbled out into the courtyard to try to flee my misery, but of course we can never flee the misery that is within us.

Can't you see? Every step I have taken, since I was that child on the bridge, has been to bring myself closer to you.

Sadness was a very heavy thing.

We don't become geisha because we want our lives to be happy; we become geisha because we have no choice.

Yet somehow the thing that startled me most, after a week or two had passed, was that I had in fact survived.

I've lived my life again just telling it to you.