And when you come back to Japan next summer, let's have that date or whatever you want to call it. We can go to the zoo or the botanical garden or the aquarium, and then we'll have the most politically correct and scrumptious omelets we can find.

...most people in the world don't really use their brains to think. And people who don't think are the ones who don't listen to others.

If writing novels is like planting a forest, then writing short stories is more like planting a garden. The two processes complement each other, creating a complete landscape that I treasure. The green foliage of the trees casts a pleasant shade over the earth, and the wind rustles the leaves, which are sometimes dyed a brilliant gold. Meanwhile, in the garden, buds appear on the flowers, and colorful petals attract bees and butterflies, reminding us of the subtle transition from one season to the next.

One heart is not connected to another through harmony alone. They are, instead, linked deeply through their wounds

You’re optimistic one moment, only to be racked the next by the certainty that it will all fall to pieces. And in the end it does.

Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.

Our faces were no more than ten inches apart but she was lightyears away from me.