Yoshino Quotes & Sayings

Words streamed from my mouth, some familiar, some not.
The last of the were, "I love you."
He rose up off me with a grin. "If I'd known it was that easy to get you to admit how you feel, I would have done this a long time ago. — Cora Carmack

No one has written adequately of what happens when enough of the body's naked surface is pressed against another human being's. It is a slow dismantling of ego, a suspension of the instinct to distinguish Me from Not Me. — Kenji Yoshino

The hungry and the homeless don't care about liberty any more than they care about cultural heritage. To pretend that they do care is cant. — E. M. Forster

I remember a biology lab in which we observed a spear-headed water worm. Like a starfish, it could grow back anything we razored off of it, even to the point of generating multiple versions of itself. I saw myself in that gliding shape. Arrow-shaped, it never arrived where it wanted to go. But it knew, when cut, to grow. — Kenji Yoshino

Yoshino distinguishes covering from "conversion" (trying to become straight) and "passing" (staying in the closet), and points out that even after gay people come out, society exerts a "covering demand" on its minority members. I would argue that, by pleading for more magnanimous treatment of our opponents, gay thought leaders were unconsciously applying the covering demand to the LGBT equality movement as a whole. — Michelangelo Signorile

All the science of God is going to be exposed before you, completely. You are going to know the complete science of Divine Laws. They are very different from the ordinary laws we know. But first enter into the Kingdom of God. That's why I say first get your Self-Realization. — Nirmala Srivastava

Ubiquity must never be mistaken for biology. — Phil Zuckerman

Perhaps none of us assumes romantic love to be a birthright. Yet the confidence it will come surely admits of degrees. Growing up, I assumed I was the word that rhymed with none other-- like "silver" or "orange," glistering bright, but sonnet foiling, and always solitary traveling. Somewhere love happened, plausible as a catch of distant conversation. But not in the self's way. — Kenji Yoshino

To read Shakespeare is to feel encompassed -- the plays contain practically every word I know, practically every character type I have ever met, and practically every idea I have ever had. — Kenji Yoshino

Last year, Yoshino,
I walked away bending branches
To point me to blossoms
Which now are everywhere and I can
Go where I've never been before. — Saigyo

I would have liked maybe to be in architecture or painting, something connected to the fine arts. — Catherine Deneuve

One reason current discussions of justice are so impoverished is that our heterogeneous society does not have many shared texts. Shakespeare's plays are among the few secular texts that remain common enough and complex enough to sustain these conversation. His answers to our dilemmas may not "bear on all points." Yet they teach us not to underestimate the action of the flower. — Kenji Yoshino

Out there was a man who had murdered his daughter. And another who had stepped on her heart. His hatred should be aimed at the one who killed her, but all he could picture was Yoshino being literally kicked out of that car. — Shuichi Yoshida

Returning to where
It used to see blossoms,
My mind, changed,
Will stay on at Yoshino ...
Home now, and see anew. — Saigyo

Listen, don't get my Jersey pride going. We are the most densely-populated state in America 'cause some many people who know the secret want to live there. — Cory Booker

The right to use my friend as a weapon. That is the sinful crown I shall adorn. I accept this 'guilt. — Hiroyuki Yoshino