Quotes from Taeko K?no

She devoted herself to becoming their friend. She had never met a real man or woman before, she realized. Compared to them, anyone else was just a generic human being.

There was no doubt that her brother was her mother's child, but time and again Hayako had the impression that she too shared her mother's blood. Not the thick, rich blood that flows peacefully through the veins, but the blood they sucked and licked from the scratches inflicted on each other when they fought tooth and nail — so passionate was their attachment.

In other words, she reflected, they hadn't known the hardship or the happiness of true conjugal life. But if only they'd been aware that they were lovers, and not husband and wife, and lived out their relationship as it really was, their experience might have been totally different. True, they might have been ostracized, and they would have lost their easy tranquillity — but they might also have felt a keener, more intense kind of joy.

Aren't you in pain, Mother?' she wanted to call out. 'Mother, I'm suffering too.