More from Banana Yoshimoto
People aren’t overcome by situations or outside forces. Defeat comes from within.
Banana YoshimotoBanana Yoshimoto Someday, without fail, everyone will disappear, scattered into the blackness of time.
Banana YoshimotoBanana 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 YoshimotoBanana 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 YoshimotoBanana 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 YoshimotoBanana 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!)” (p. 3).
Banana YoshimotoBanana 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 YoshimotoBanana Yoshimoto 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.
Banana YoshimotoBanana Yoshimoto Once you’ve recognized your own limits, you’ve raised yourself to a higher level of being, since you’re closer to the real you.
Banana YoshimotoBanana 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 YoshimotoBanana 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 YoshimotoBanana Yoshimoto Fate is a ladder on which you cannot afford to miss a single rung. To skip out on even one step would mean you’ll never make it to the top.
Banana YoshimotoBanana Yoshimoto Why is it we have so little choice? We live like the lowliest worms. Always defeated – defeated we make dinner, we eat, we sleep. Everyone we love is dying. Sill, to cease living is unacceptable.
Banana YoshimotoBanana 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 YoshimotoBanana 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 YoshimotoBanana Yoshimoto The ritual of our daily lives permeate our very bodies.
Banana YoshimotoBanana Yoshimoto
Original quotes
From our community writers
Don’t compare her to sunshine and roses when she’s clearly orchids and moonlight.
Melody LeeMelody Lee Oh moonlight, continue to shine on me. As you light up the sky, maybe some peace will come to me.
ShamaShama Stop counting the reasons why they should be loved and start counting the many reasons why you are the one who is worth loving.
Ayaka HaseAyaka Hase Sure, there are oceans and seas and magnificent things – but none of them are you.
L.T. PhoenixL.T. Phoenix I wish you the wildest of dreams.
Kate WestKate West The way you look at me, The way you make me feel whole, The way you make me feel safe, thats poetry to me.
Barbara GianquittoBarbara Gianquitto You cannot leave and have me too I cannot exist in two places at once-when you ask if we can still be friends.
Rupi KaurRupi Kaur Live to be happy not to impress.
Hayley EvansHayley Evans
Meet the writers
More on brilliant
Victory often goes to the army that makes the least mistakes, not the most brilliant plans.
Charles de GaulleCharles de Gaulle It’s funny, there aren’t too many musicians that also moonlight as studio engineers. There’s a few – the really brilliant ones.
Dave GrohlDave Grohl And you, you’ll always be the most brilliant mystery a masterpiece of october midnight hauntings my best dressed trauma at the evening masquerade.
Aimee C. HoveyAimee C. Hovey The most brilliant flashes of wit come from a clouded mind, as lightning leaps only from an obscure firmament.
Christian Nestell BoveeChristian Nestell Bovee There is nothing better than being in a classroom with really, really brilliant students, and opening up new worlds to them. That’s what I love doing.
Condoleezza RiceCondoleezza Rice To be kind is more important than to be right. Many times, what people need is not a brilliant mind that speaks but a special heart that listens.
F. Scott FitzgeraldF. Scott Fitzgerald To be kind is more important than to be right. Many times, what people need is not a brilliant mind that speaks but a special heart that listens.
F. Scott FitzgeraldF. Scott Fitzgerald Knowing what you don’t know is more useful than being brilliant.
Charlie MungerCharlie Munger
