Quotes from Gail Tsukiyama

It was like a bad dream with only one saving grace: my family thought I was dead. I suddenly felt lighter, relieved of the burden that had been placed on me as a living person. Yet, there was still someone who knew I existed, which made me feel like a real person again, not a ghost roaming the earth.

Ah yes, now Yoshio remembered the last myth. Three foxes together foretold disaster. And here they were, like three foxes trapped in a hole with disaster just above them.

Haru looked at the devastation around her. I see a world covered in grey ash. I see a world covered in grey ash with flecks of white bone. I see a world covered in grey ash with flecks of white bone of all those who will never rise again.

Only once have I had the courage to ask Matsu what he felt about his country's victories in China. He was in the kitchen reading a magazine, as his radio blared from his room. He looked up at me and simply said, "Japan is like a young woman who thinks too much of herself. She's bound to get herself into trouble.

He showed me that life is not just from within, it extends all around you, wether you wish it to or not. And so, this garden became a part of my life. The Samari's Garden

No one spoke, The host, the guest, The white chrysanthemums. -Ry?ta

After Laura leaves, I pick up the recorder on the nightstand and play a short melody Howard once taught me. "It's basically just six notes repeated," he told me. "The simple power of music."...... ..."Then I listen in the darkness for the familiar sounds, knowing everything has changed.

In the end, the body betrayed everyone.

haven't been able

If you have too much good luck when you are young," Mah-mee said, "there won't be any luck left for when you are old.

Don't ever think that just because you do things differently, you're wrong.

It's harder than I imagined, to be alone.

Japan is like a young woman who thinks too much of herself. She's bound to get herself into trouble.

Then she turned and pointed to Matsu's newly built wooden bridge. It was an exact replica of the original, its ascending and descending curves forming a perfect arch. "Matsu once told me the bridge represented the samurai's difficult path from this world to the afterlife. When you reach the top of the bridge, you can see your way to paradise. I feel as if the past few days have given me a glimpse of that. To simply live a life without fear has been a true paradise.

I knew the sense of integrity I had long admired in him had died, and that I was already grieving for its loss.

I won't say we human beings still don't have much to learn. Sometimes we love and hate without thought. We expect too much from one another, and often we are wrong.

The greatest honor I could have given my family was that of my death, and I ran from it. I was frightened at not fulfilling my obligation, not giving ko to my parents. Yet, there was a voice inside of me that kept telling me to escape

Perhaps the dull ache I'm feeling comes from letting go, the realization that some memories should be left as just that, a moment in time when the fruits of life are at their sweetest.

It's harder than I imagined, to be alone. I supposed I might get used to it, like an empty canvas you slowly begin to fill.

Sometimes you can't let go of the past without facing it again.

Mothers and their children are in a category all their own. There's no bond so strong in the entire world. No love so instantaneous and forgiving.

Even a snail will eventually reach its destination.

Everything seems simpler from a distance.

Beauty exists where you least expect to find it.