When microorganisms die, they make oil; when huge timbers fall, they make coal. But everything here was pure, unadulterated rubbish that didn't make anything. Where does a busted videodeck get you?

She was hearing everything that went on in his heart, like a person who can trace a map with his fingertip and conjure up vivid, living scenery.

Hatsumi had a pretty good idea that Nagasawa was sleeping around, but she never complained to him. She was seriously in love with him, but she never made demands. 'I don't deserve a girl like Hatsumi,' Nagasawa once said to me. I had to agree with him.

No matter what form the relationship might take, he was the only person she could picture sharing her life with.

Life is so uncertain: you never know what could happen. One way to deal with that is to keep your pajamas washed.

It was as if I were writing letters to hold together the pieces of my crumbling life.

Does G get angry because it follows F in the alphabet? Does page 68 in a book start a revolution because it follows 67?