A deserted library in the morning - there's something about it that really gets to me. All possible words and ideas are there, resting peacefully.

Maybe working on the little things as dutifully and honestly as we can is how we stay sane when the world is falling apart.

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.

What I'd like to be is a unique writer who's different from everybody else. I want to be a writer who tells stories unlike other writers'.

Genius or fool, you don't live in the world alone. You can hide underground or you can build a wall around yourself, but somebody's going to come along and screw up the works.

Nights without work I spend with whisky and books.

A person’s destiny is something you look back at afterwards, not something to be known in advance.