I've been running a full marathon every year for more than 20 years, and my record is getting worse. Getting older, getting worse. It's natural.

[...] Shimamoto had her own little world within her. A world that was for her alone, one I could not enter.

Painful is the stress when one cannot reproduce or convey vividly to others, however hard he tries, what he's experienced so intensely.

If you really want to know what's happening here and now, you've got to use your own eyes and your own judgment.

I'm the kind of person who has to totally commit to whatever I do.

It takes years to build up, it takes moments to destroy.

Reading was like an addiction; I read while I ate, on the train, in bed until late at night, in school, where I'd keep the book hidden so I could read during class. Before long I bought a small stereo and spent all my time in my room, listening to jazz records. But I had almost no desire to talk to anyone about the experience I gained through books and music. I felt happy just being me and no one else. In that sense I could be called a stack-up loner.