The best point of my novels, I think, is their humor. I want to keep many my works humorous.

That’s what love’s all about. You’re the only one having those wonderful feelings, but you have to go it alone as you wander through the dark your mind and body have to bear it all. All by yourself.

You know what I think?" she says. "That people's memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive. Whether those memories have any actual importance or not, it doesn't matter as far as the maintenance of life is concerned. They're all just fuel. Advertising fillers in the newspaper, philosophy books, dirty pictures in a magazine, a bundle of ten-thousand-yen bills: when you feed 'em to the fire, they're all just paper.

You are entering a phase of your life in which many different things will occur...bad things that seem good at first and good things that seem bad at first.

Even if we could turn back, we'd probably never end up where we started.

The ground we stand on looks solid enough, but if something happens it can drop right out from under you.

I was always hungry for love. Just once, I wanted to know what it was like to get my fill of it -- to be fed so much love I couldn't take any more. Just once.