You have to be practical. So every time I say, if you want to write a novel you have to be practical, people get bored. They are disappointed. They are expecting a more dynamic, creative, artistic thing to say. What I want to say is: you have to be practical.

[But] we accept irony through a device called metaphor. And through that we grow and become deeper human beings.

Adults need more complex narratives. They have their own narratives. The main characters are themselves.

We were young, and we had no need for prophecies. Just living was itself an act of prophecy.

Then I noticed that my shadow was crying too, shedding clear, sharp shadow tears. Have you ever seen the shadows of tears, Mr. Wind-Up Bird? They’re nothing like ordinary shadows. Nothing at all. They come here from some other, distant world, especially for our hearts. Or maybe not. It struck me then that the tears my shadow was shedding might be the real thing, and the tears that I was shedding were just shadows. You don’t get it, I’m sure, Mr. Wind-Up Bird. When a naked seventeen-year-old girl is shedding tears in the moonlight, anything can happen. It’s true.

If only I could fall sound asleep and wake up in my old reality!

That's how people live in the real world: forcing stuff on each other.