At that point, Noriko finally breaks down and begins to cry sobbing into her hands as the floodgates open - this young woman who has suffered in silence for so long, this good woman who refuse to believe she's good, for only the good doubt their own goodness, which is what makes them good in the first place. The bad know they are good, but the good know nothing. They spend their lives forgiving others, but they can't forgive themselves.

People who don't like my work say that the connections seem too arbitrary. But that's how life is.

I don't even own a computer. I write by hand then I type it up on an old manual typewriter. But I cross out a lot - I'm not writing in stone tablets, it's just ink on paper. I don't feel comfortable without a pen or a pencil in my hand. I can't think with my fingers on the keyboard. Words are generated for me by gripping the pen, and pressing the point on the paper.

Stories without endings can do nothing but go on forever, and to be caught in one means that you must die before your part in it is played out.

Reason and memory are nearly always at odds.

There are often references to childhood, but they're rarely the focus of the [my] novels.

Dismantling the architecture of my discontent