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

I was thanking him for...well, for something I'm not sure I can explain even now. For showing me that something besides cruelty could be found in the world, I suppose.

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

It was what we Japanese called the onion life, peeling away a layer at a time and crying all the while.

A woman who acts like a fool is a fool.

In the instant before the door opened, I could almost sense my life expanding just like a river whose waters have begun to swell; for I had never before taken such a drastic step to change the course of my own future. I was like a child tiptoeing along a precipice overlooking the sea. And yet somehow I hadn't imagined a great wave might come and strike me there, and wash everything away.

A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course of victory.