Sometimes people put up walls, not to keep others out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.
BANANA YOSHIMOTOIt 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.
More Banana Yoshimoto Quotes
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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.
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Was that what it means to be an adult, to live with ugly ambiguities?
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Good tea is eloquent enough, it turns out, to change a person’s mind.
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Truly happy memories always live on, shining. Over time, one by one, they come back to life.
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I should have told her at the time. I could have taken a deep breath, looked away, and forced myself to say it.
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People aren’t overcome by situations or outside forces. Defeat comes from within.
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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.
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I spent most of my time thinking, because I didn’t have enough energy to do anything else.
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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.
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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?
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You know, Chihiro, darling- all it takes is one little wrong step and you end up feeling frustrated your whole life, like me.
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I never tell my boyfriend that I’m busy when I’m not. No matter how effective they are, cheap techniques like that just don’t agree with me. So it’s always okay, it’s always all right. In my opinion the surest way to hook a man is to be as open with him as possible.
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It was so gorgeous it almost felt like sadness.
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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.
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Everything that had happened was shockingly beautiful, enough to make you crazy.
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I love feeling the rhythm of other people’s lives. It’s like traveling.
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Again and again I will suffer; again and again I will get back on my feet. I will not be defeated.
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No matter what, I want to continue living with the awareness that I will die. Without that, I am not alive.
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Although I was raised with love, I was always lonely.
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If you don’t say what you’re thinking, you end up lying when you really need to speak up.
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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.
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But I have my life, I’m living it. It’s twisted, exhausting, uncertain, and full of guilt, but nonetheless, there’s something there.
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When things get really bad, you take comfort in the placeness of a place.
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Someday, without fail, everyone will disappear, scattered into the blackness of time.
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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.
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You have the nicest window, you know? None of the others can even compete. It´s not flashy like the others, or bleary – your window gives of this nice, quiet light.
BANANA YOSHIMOTO