Yoshimoto Quotes & Sayings

I had been walking in silence for so long,I had almost forgotten what my own voice sounded like.My knees were tired;my toes were beginning to ache. — Banana Yoshimoto

I had the feeling that Nakajima was taking one aspect of me - the straightforward, easy-going part that emerged when I was with him, the cheerful surface that I had inherited from my mom - and blowing it all out of proportion. If so, he might feel terribly betrayed when my dark, somber side eventually showed its face. — Banana Yoshimoto

This is what it means to be loved ... when someone wants to touch you, to be tender ... — Banana Yoshimoto

It was as if his tears had nowhere to go, they were meant for god alone. — Banana Yoshimoto

A particular variety of loneliness, like peering deep into the darkness.
It's only natural, when two separate universes touch. — Banana Yoshimoto

Truly happy memories always live on, shining. Over time, one by one, they come back to life. — Banana Yoshimoto

Who am I? You know who I am. Or you think you do. I'm your florist. I'm your grocer. I'm your porter. I'm your waiter. I'm the owner of the dry-goods store on the corner of Elm. I'm the shoeshine boy. I'm the judo teacher. I'm the Buddhist priest. I'm the Shinto priest. I'm the Right Reverend Yoshimoto. So prease to meet you. ( ... ) I'm the one you call Jap. I'm the one you call Nip. I'm the one you call Slits. I'm the one you call Slopes. I'm the one you call Yellowbelly. I'm the one you call Gook. I'm the one you don't see at all - we all look alike. I'm the one you see everywhere - we're taking over the neighborhood. I'm the one you look for under your bed every night before you go to sleep. ( ... ) I'm your nightmare ... — Julie Otsuka

I'll never be able to be here again. As the minutes slide by, I move on. The flow of time is something I cannot stop. I haven't a choice. I go. One caravan has stopped, another starts up. There are people I have yet to meet, others I'll never see again. People who are gone before you know it, people who are just passing through. Even as we exchange hellos, they seem to grow transparent. I must keep living with the flowing river before my eyes. — Banana Yoshimoto

All of the art that I love is about peeling back layers and delving into something that's in a subconscious or dream realm. People like Jan Svankmajer, or the artist Yoshimoto Nara, or David Lynch. — Bat For Lashes

I became part of the air that surrounded Sui, and breathed her incomprehensible sadness. I think that part of those feelings live within my soul. Burdened by bad karma, and a soul that beckoned such unfortunate fate, Sui used all the resources she had to make her way through love. I witnessed that. — Banana Yoshimoto

Recognizing how totally ignorant you are is the only honest way to deal with people who've been through something traumatic. — Banana Yoshimoto

The place I like best in this world is the kitchen. No matter where it is, no matter what kind, if it's a kitchen, if it's a place where they make food, it's fine with me. Ideally it should be well broken in. Lots of tea towels, dry and immaculate. Where tile catching the light (ting! Ting!) — Banana Yoshimoto

As well as the way he always said Itadakimasu, quietly, before he started eating. — Banana Yoshimoto

We ran into lots of old friends. Friends from elementary school, junior high school, high school. Everyone had matured in their own way, and even as we stood face to face with them they seemed like people from dreams, sudden glimpses through the fences of our tangled memories. We smiled and waved, exchanged a few words, and then walked on in our separate directions. — Banana Yoshimoto

Nakajima's presence didn't put any pressure on me, either. Quite the opposite: there was a warmth in the core of my chest when he was around. — Banana Yoshimoto

If someone could give me some sort of evidence that what we're doing is really love, I'd be so tremendously relieved ... — Banana Yoshimoto

in this society, things you'd think could only be bad jokes actually happen all the time. — Banana Yoshimoto

A lover should die after a long lifetime. I lost Hitoshi at the age of twenty, and I suffered from it so much that I felt as if my own life had stopped. The night he died, my soul went away to some other place and I couldn't bring it back. It was impossible to see the world as I had before. My brain ebbed and flowed, unstable, and I passed the days in a relentless state of dull oppression. — Banana Yoshimoto

My body knows not to respond to fake love. I guess maybe that's what it means to have been brought up well. Mom, — Banana Yoshimoto

It didn't matter whether he was nearby or far away. His image would drift up into your mind just when you least expected it, shocking you, making your chest pound. Making your heart ache. — Banana Yoshimoto

Here in this ocean, in the midst of all this water, with the red flags on those distant buoys flapping in the sea breeze, I find myself unable to treat our house in Tokyo as anything but a dream. — Banana Yoshimoto

The way we think may be completely different, but you and I are an ancient, archetypal couple, the original man and woman. We are the model for Adam and Eve. For all couples in love, there comes a moment when a man gazes at a woman with the very same kind of realization. It is an infinite helix, the dance of two souls resonating, like the twist of DNA, like the vast universe. — Banana Yoshimoto

There are many days when all the awful things that happen make you sick at heart, when the path before you is so steep you can't bear to look. Not even love can rescue a person from that. Still, enveloped in the twilight coming from the west, there she was, watering the plants with her slender, graceful hands, in the midst of a light so sweet it seemed to form a rainbow in the transparent water she poured. — Banana Yoshimoto

It was so gorgeous it almost felt like sadness. — Banana Yoshimoto

I realized that from now on, my mom's life and mine would have to be completely, unmistakably different. Nothing about us was the same: the times we lived in, the ways we regarded the world, the things we valued. — Banana Yoshimoto

And usually, when it's all over, I find that everything has come together surprisingly well. When that happens, I feel like I've been dancing, perfectly in time, with the world. That — Banana Yoshimoto

I was kind of tired, I guess, of knowing people are flesh. Flesh and water. — Banana Yoshimoto

I realized that the world did not exist for my benefit. It followed that the ratio of pleasant and unpleasant things around me would not change. It wasn't up to me. It was clear that the best thing to do was to adopt a sort of muddled cheerfulness. — Banana Yoshimoto

This world of ours is piled high with farewells and goodbyes of so many different kinds, like the evening sky renewing itself again and again from one instant to the next-and I didn't want to forget a single one. — Banana Yoshimoto

Hitoshi:
I'll never be able to be here again. As the minutes slide by, I move on. The flow of time is something I cannot stop. I haven't a choice. I go.
One caravan has stopped, another starts up. There are people I've yet to meet, others I'll never see again. People who are gone before you know it, people who are just passing through. Even as we exchange hellos, they seem to grow transparent. I must keep living with the flowing river before my eyes.
I earnestly pray that a trace of my girl-child self will always be with you.
For waving good-bye, I thank you. — Banana Yoshimoto

Akira often gets mad at me because he thinks I'm too nice to strangers, and cold as a fish at home. What can I do? He's right, but that's the way I am. I'm more enthusiastic about people I've just met, whom I barely know at all, than with old friends. Before the awkwardness of a new acquaintance has worn off, I'm ready to offer myself up to that person. — Banana Yoshimoto

All I wanted was to get through this as quickly as possible, to see the day when memories be just memories. — Banana Yoshimoto

Everyone knows that hidden pull is there, but we go on living our lives, pretending we don't. We keep our gazes fixed, day after day, on the things we want to see. — Banana Yoshimoto

Be sure to keep your tummy war, try to relax, both your heart and your body, try not to get flustered. Live like a flower. — Banana Yoshimoto

Chilled-looking people walking along the riverside, the snow beginning, faintly, to pile up on the roofs of cars, the bare trees shaking their heads left and right, dry leaves tossing in the wind. The silver of the metal window sash sparkling coldly.
Soon after, I heard sensei call, "Mikage! Are you awake? It's snowing, look! It's snowing!"
"I'm coming!" I called out, standing up. I got dressed to begin another day. Over and over, we begin again. — Banana Yoshimoto

At that moment I had a thrilling sharp intuition. I knew it as if I held it in my hands: In the gloom of death that surrounded the two of us, we were just at the point of approaching and negotiating a gentle curve. If we bypassed it, we would split off into different directions. In that case, we would forever remain just friends. — Banana Yoshimoto

willingness to give in is rampant in this society of ours. — Banana Yoshimoto

For some reason I keep getting connected to men who have something to do with plants. — Banana Yoshimoto

If I'd known things would end this way, we could have gone and done all that stuff instead of making excuses about my job, about how your mother couldn't spare the time, — Banana Yoshimoto

No matter what, I want to continue living with the awareness that I will die. Without that, I am not alive. — Banana Yoshimoto

Things that don't matter at all to one person can hurt another so deeply it seems as bad as dying. — Banana Yoshimoto

Nakajima's past would always be there, so the foundation could crumble at any moment. That's what happens, I realized, when people destroy other people. — Banana Yoshimoto

I was frightened of so many things, in my vanity, that ultimately i couldn't protect myself any other way. Try not to be like that, okay? Be sure to keep your tummy warm, try to relax, both your heart and your body, try not to get flustered.
Live like a flower. You have that right. It's something you can achieve, for sure, in your lifetime. And it's enough. — Banana Yoshimoto

Parting and death are both terribly painful. But to keep nursing the memory of a love so great you can't believe you'll ever love again is a useless drain on a woman's energies. — Banana Yoshimoto

Even when I try to stir myself up, I just get irritated because I can't make anything come out. And in the middle of the night I lie here thinking about all this. If I don't get back on track somehow, I'm dead, that's the sense I get. There isn't a single strong emotion inside me. — Banana Yoshimoto

If people I don't care for are attracted to me, I accept it as the wages of beauty. — Banana Yoshimoto

When things get really bad, you take comfort in the placeness of a place. — Banana Yoshimoto

I should have told her at the time. I could have taken a deep breath, looked away, and forced myself to say it. — Banana Yoshimoto

Every time I look into his eyes I just want to take the ice cream or whatever I've got in my hand and rub it into his face. That's how much I like him. — Banana Yoshimoto

It was the truth. I felt a yearning love for every instant that passed. — Banana Yoshimoto

Of course, it's true that sometimes the pink at sunrise somehow seems brighter than the pink at sunset, and that when you're feeling down the the landscape seems darker too - you see things through the filter of your own sensibility. But the things themselves, out there, they don't change. They existed, and that's all there is to it. — Banana Yoshimoto

I suppose that's the reason I believe that as long as there is someone in charge of the household, someone who can maintain order among its members, someone who is clearly mature and established as a person, someone, in other words, like my mother, then eventually all who live under the same roof, despite blood ties or lineage, will at one point become family. Such a simple idea, but one that took a while for me to catch on to.

Oh, and another thing.

If the same people don't spend enough time in a home, even if they are connected by blood, their bonds will slowly fade away like a familiar landscape. — Banana Yoshimoto

That's the advantage of insomnia. People who go to be early always complain that the night is too short, but for those of us who stay up all night, it can feel as long as a lifetime. You get a lot done — Banana Yoshimoto

I mean it. When your light is out, Chihiro, I feel so alone I can hardly bear it."

Whenever Nakajima said my name, every single time, it sparkled like a treasure. I had no idea why. Wow - did you see how that flashed? Say it again for me, please!
Only I couldn't tell him that, so I simply replayed his voice, speaking my name, within me. — Banana Yoshimoto

What was important wasn't the fireworks, it was that we were together this evening, together in this place, looking up into the sky at the same time. — Banana Yoshimoto

My loneliness was an important part of my own little universe, not some pathological disease that needs to be gotten [sic] rid of. — Banana Yoshimoto

The sky was incredibly far away, and beautiful enough to make a person wonder why our hearts are never so free. — Banana Yoshimoto

People tend to think they break up because they get tired of the person they've been with---that it's someone's decision, either yours or theirs. But this really isn't true. Periods in our lives end the way seasons change. That's all there is to it. Human willpower can't change that--which means, if you look at it another way, that we might as well enjoy ourselves until that day arrives. — Banana Yoshimoto

I don't put any stock in whatever it is that happens inside my head. — Banana Yoshimoto

fighting to bridge those gaps isn't what really matters. The most important thing is to know them inside and out, as differences, and to understand why certain people are the way they are. My — Banana Yoshimoto

Why is it that everything I eat when I'm with you is so delicious?' I laughed. 'Could it be that you're satisfying hunger and lust at the same time? — Banana Yoshimoto

No, I just wanted to recapture the incredibly vivid love we'd had at first- the love I'd shared with the tall man standing next to me, with the man I adored. — Banana Yoshimoto

As people we narrowly get by with our lives each day, energy from our soft, delicate actions appearing like cherry blossoms, only once, and once for a short while. Eventually petals fall to the ground. — Banana Yoshimoto

And when something awful happens, the goodness stands out even more ... — Banana Yoshimoto

Everyone lives the way she knows best. What I mean by 'their happiness' is living a life untouched as much as possible by the knowledge that we are really, all of us, alone. That's not a bad thing. — Banana Yoshimoto

The ritual of our daily lives permeate our very bodies. — Banana Yoshimoto

Truly great people emit a light that warms the hearts of those around them. When that light has been put out, a heavy shadow of despair descends. — Banana Yoshimoto

Things are just things. They can't bring back the dead. it just makes me feel better. — Banana Yoshimoto

It occurred to me that if I were a ghost, this ambiance was what I'd miss most: the ordinary, day-to-day bustle of the living. Ghosts long, I'm sure, for the stupidest, most unremarkable things. — Banana Yoshimoto

Nothing exists in this world but me and my bed ... (p. 141). — Banana Yoshimoto

You know, Chihiro, darling- all it takes is one little wrong step and you end up feeling frustrated your whole life, like me. — Banana Yoshimoto

The lake has all sorts of different faces. And so it's always fresh. — Banana Yoshimoto

I got up and sprinted into the ocean, chasing my father. I'm in love with the moment when the water switches from being so cold you want to leap up into the air to something that feels just right against your skin. — Banana Yoshimoto

I read in some book that if you try to hold people back too much when they're dying it keeps them from being reborn as a Buddha, — Banana Yoshimoto

Be sure to keep your tummy warm, try to relax, both your heart and your body, try not to get flustered. Live like a flower. You have that right. — Banana Yoshimoto

To the extent that I had come to understand that despair does not necessarily result in annihilation, that one can go on as usual in spite of it, I had become hardened. Was this what it means to be an adult, to live with ugly ambiguities? I didn't like it, but it made it easier to go on. — Banana Yoshimoto

In places where a loved one has died, time stops for eternity. If I stand on the very spot, one says to oneself, like a prayer, might I feel the pain he felt? They say that on a visit to an old castle or whatever, the history of the place, the presence of people who walked there many years ago, can be felt in the body. Before, when I heard things like that, I would think, what are they talking about? But i felt I understood it now. — Banana Yoshimoto

The night glittered brilliantly then. — Banana Yoshimoto

I felt how important the simplest things were, like feeling proud, finding something funny, stretching yourself, retreating into yourself. — Banana Yoshimoto

These women lived their lives happily. They had been taught, probably by loving parents, not to exceed the boundaries of their happiness regardless of what they were doing. But therefore they could never know real joy. Which is better? Who can say? Everyone lives the way she knows best. What I mean by 'their happiness' is living a life untouched as much as possible by the knowledge that we are really, all of us, alone. That's not a bad thing. Dressed in their aprons, their smiling faces like flowers, leaning to cook, absorbed in their little troubles and perplexities, they fall in love and marry. I think that's great. I wouldn't mind that kind of life. Me, when I'm utterly exhausted by it all, my skin breaks out, on those lonely evenings when I call my friends again and again and nobody's home, then I despise my own life - my birth, my upbringing, everything. I feel only regret for the whole thing. — Banana Yoshimoto

I wonder what it felt to move to a country where you didn't grow up. I had thought about that often since my sister got married. Do you become a character in a story native to that land, or do you, somewhere in your heart, want to return to your homeland. — Banana Yoshimoto

As I grow older, much older, I will experience many things, and I will hit rock bottom again and again. Again and again I will suffer; again and again I will get back on my feet. I will not be defeated. I won't let my spirit be destroyed. — Banana Yoshimoto

Why were we so far apart, even when we were together? It was a nice loneliness, like the sensation of washing your face in cold water. — Banana Yoshimoto

The room was so unearthly quiet, I lost all sense of time being divided into seconds. I felt that I was the only person alive and moving in a world brought to a stop. — Banana Yoshimoto

When someone tells you something big, it's like you're taking money from them, and there's no way it will ever go back to being the way it was. You have to take responsibility for listening. — Banana Yoshimoto

On nights like this when the air is so clear, you end up saying things you ordinarily wouldn't. Without even noticing what you're doing, you open up your heart and just start talking to the person next to you - you talk as if you have no audience but the glittering stars, far overhead. — Banana Yoshimoto

We've been very lonely, but we had it easy. Because death is so heavy - we, too young to know about it, couldn't handle it. After this you and I may end up seeing nothing but suffering, difficulty and ugliness, but if only you'll agree to it, I want for us to go on to more difficult places, happier places, what ever comes, together. I want you to make the decision after you're completely better, so take your time thinking about it. In the mean time, though, don't disappear on me. — Banana Yoshimoto

I was happy. I loved the night, I loved t so much it almost hurt. In the night everything seemed possible. I wasn't sleepy at all. — Banana Yoshimoto

Love is the kind of thing that's already happening by the time you notice it, that's how it works, and no matter how old you get, that doesn't change. Except that you can break it up into two entirely distinct types
love where there's an end in sight and love where there isn't. — Banana Yoshimoto

Although I was raised with love, I was always lonely. — Banana Yoshimoto

Most people are constantly perpetrating little acts of violence on others, even when they don't mean to. — Banana Yoshimoto

Her hair rustled, brushing her shoulders. There are many days when all the awful things that happen make you sick at heart, when the path before you is so steep you can't bear to look. Not even love can rescue a person from that. Still, enveloped in the twilight coming from the west, there she was, watering the plants with her slender, graceful hands, in the midst of a light so sweet it seemed to form a rainbow in the transparent water she poured.
"I think I understand."
"I love your honest heart, Mikage. The grandmother who raised you must have been a wonderful person."
I smiled. "She was."
"You've been lucky," said Eriko. She laughed, her back to me. — Banana Yoshimoto

When was it I realized that, on this truly dark and solitary path we all walk, the only way we can light is our own? Although I was raised with love, I was always lonely.
Someday, without fail, everyone will disappear, scattered into the blackness of time. — Banana Yoshimoto

As long as it had remained a mystery, I could have dealt with it
no matter how enormous a mystery it became. Now that matters had gotten more specific, my imagination began supplying smells and textures. — Banana Yoshimoto

From the bottom of my heart, I wanted to give up; I wanted to give up on living. There was no denying that tomorrow would come, and the day after tomorrow, and so next week, too. I never thought it would be this hard, but I would go on living in the midst of a glomy depression, and that made me feel sick to the depths of my soul. In spite of the tempest raging within me, I walked the night path calmly. — Banana Yoshimoto

I spent most of my time thinking, because I didn't have enough energy to do anything else. — Banana Yoshimoto

It'll be this kind of deep blue"she said. "The kind of color that somehow sucks your eyes and your ears and all your words - the color of a completely closed-in night — Banana Yoshimoto

There are no rules here, except that you have to sit properly at the bar when you drink. People can tell me anything they want. Things they wouldn't usually say, things that wouldn't be acceptable at work - it doesn't matter. That's what this place is for, after all: they come and pay money to buy themselves, their innermost hearts, a bit of freedom." She — Banana Yoshimoto

the BTK Killer (which to me sounds more like something you order from a drive-thru window). — Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff

I know just how slimy people can be, and how people like that are during the daytime. They don't get slimy at night because they're drunk, they get slimy because they're already slimy to begin with. I — Banana Yoshimoto