My priority is my books, at least at this point. What I have to do is write the narrative of this time.

To know one’s own state is not a simple matter. One cannot look directly at one’s own face with one’s own eyes, for example. One has no choice but to look at one’s reflection in the mirror. Through experience, we come to believe that the image is correct, but that is all.

But what seems like a reasonable distance to one person might feel too far to somebody else.

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.

People's memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive.

Before I became a writer, I was running a jazz bar in the center of Tokyo, which means that I worked in filthy air all the time late into the night. I was very excited when I started making a living out of my writing, and I decided, 'I will live in nothing but an absolutely healthy way.'

Not to excuse myself, but when you have people right in front of you denying your very presence like that, then see if you don't doubt whether you actually exist. I look at my hands half expecting to see clear through them.