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

Reality was utterly coolheaded and utterly lonely.

Become like a sheet of blotting paper and soak it all in. Later on you can figure out what to keep and what to unload.

Life is here, death is over there. I am here, not over there.

No matter how far you travel, you can never get away from yourself.

Kumiko and I felt something for each other from the beginning. It was not one of those strong, impulsive feelings that can hit two people like an electric shock when they first meet, but something quieter and gentler, like two tiny lights traveling in tandem through a vast darkness and drawing imperceptibly closer to each other as they go. As our meetings grew more frequent, I felt not so much that I had met someone new as that I had chanced upon a dear old friend.

Suicides? Heart attacks? The papers didn't seem interested. The world was full of ways to die, too many to cover. Newsworthy deaths had to be exceptional. Most people go unobserved.