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.

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

I worried she might spend an afternoon chatting with me about the sights and then wish me best of luck.

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

This is why dreams can be such dangerous things: they smolder on like a fire does, and sometimes they consume us completely.

Now I know that our world is no more permanent than a wave rising on the ocean. Whatever our struggles and triumphs, however we may suffer them, all too soon they bleed into a wash, just like watery ink on paper.

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