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.

When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.

The best way to think about reality, I had decided, was to get as far away from it as possible.

If you're in pitch blackness, all you can do is sit tight until your eyes get used to the dark.

it occurred to me what a simple thing reality is, how easy it is to make it work. It's just reality. Just housework. Just a home. Like running a simple machine. Once you learn to run it, it's just a matter of repetition. You push this button and pull that lever. You adjust a gauge, put on the lid, set the timer. The same thing, over and over.

As long as I kept my body moving I could forget about the emptiness inside.

I'm a very ordinary human being; I just happen to like reading books.