Most near-future fictions are boring. It's always dark and always raining, and people are so unhappy.

As we go through life we gradually discover who we are, but the more we discover, the more we lose ourselves.

From the girl who sat before me now...surged a fresh and physical life force. She was like a small animal that has popped into the world with the coming of spring. Her eyes moved like an independent organism with joy, laughter, anger, amazement, and despair. I hadn't seen a face so vivid and expressive in ages, and I enjoyed watching it live and move.

What would tomorrow bring? I wondered. Both hands on the wheel, I closed my eyes. I didn’t feel like I was in my own body; my body was just a lonely, temporary container I happened to be borrowing. What would become of me tomorrow I did not know.

How much do you love me?' Midori asked. 'Enough to melt all the tigers in the world to butter,' I said.

Mediocrity's like a spot on a shirt—it never comes off.

I get up early in the morning, 4 o'clock, and I sit at my desk and what I do is just dream. After three or four hours, that's enough. In the afternoon, I run.