Banana Yoshimoto Quotes

Sometimes people put up walls, not to keep others out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.

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.

I love feeling the rhythm of other people's lives. It's like traveling.

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

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

Everything that had happened was shockingly beautiful, enough to make you crazy.

No matter where you are, you're always a bit on your own, always an outsider.

But I have my life, I’m living it. It’s twisted, exhausting, uncertain, and full of guilt, but nonetheless, there’s something there.

The night glittered brilliantly then.

Over and over, we begin again.

It was so gorgeous it almost felt like sadness.

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.

People aren't overcome by situations or outside forces. Defeat comes from within.

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.

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

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

Again and again I will suffer; again and again I will get back on my feet. I will not be defeated.

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.

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.

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

It was at once a miracle and the most natural thing in the world.

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

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?

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

If you don’t say what you’re thinking, you end up lying when you really need to speak up.

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.

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.

Good tea is eloquent enough, it turns out, to change a person's mind.

Someday, without fail, everyone will disappear, scattered into the blackness of time.

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.

Everything in life has some good in it. And when something awful happens, the goodness stands out even more--it's sad, but that's the truth.

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.

Nothing exists in this world but me and my bed…” (p. 141).

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.

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

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.

In the uncertain ebb and flow of time and emotions much of one's life history is etched in the senses.

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.

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.

The ritual of our daily lives permeate our very bodies.

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

Although I was raised with love, I was always lonely.

She was still there inside me now, just as she always was: a life put on hold, a memory I didn't know how to handle.

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.

Was that what it means to be an adult, to live with ugly ambiguities?

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.

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

I really believe that no matter how old people get, they tend to change in certain ways depending on how people treat them - they change their colors.

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

I see two lovers looking over the edge of the cauldron of hell. Are they contemplating a double suicide? This means their love will end in hell.' I couldn't stop laughing.