Quotes from Kazuo Ishiguro

They fear loneliness and that's why they behave as they do. Perhaps Josie too.

She laughed and said: "Because nothing. I'd like you to forgive me, but I don't expect you to. Anyway, that's not the half of it, not even a small bit of it, actually. The main thing is, I kept you and Tommy apart." Her voice had dropped again, almost to a whisper. "That was the worst thing I did.

One should realize one has as good as most, perhaps better, and be grateful.

I was upset. But I'm not any more. You have to look forward in life.

?n vacibi o idi ki, dÉ™yÉ™rli bir ??yam?z? itirÉ™ndÉ™ vÉ™ axtar?b-axtar?b tapa bilmÉ™yÉ™ndÉ™ qÉ™lbimiz tamamilÉ™ q?r?lm?rd?. Böyüyüb ölkÉ™dÉ™ sÉ™rbÉ™st sÉ™yahÉ™t edÉ™ bilÉ™ndÉ™ Norfolka getmÉ™k imkan?m?z?n olaca?? fikri ilÉ™ özümüzÉ™ tÉ™sÉ™lli verÉ™ bilirdik.

This country awakens so many memories, though each seems like some restless sparrow I know will flee any moment into the breeze.

When I watched you dancing that day, I saw something else. I saw a new world coming rapidly. More scientific, efficient, yes. More cures for the old sicknesses. Very good. But a harsh, cruel world. And I saw a little girl, her eyes tightly closed, holding to her breast the old, kind world, one that she knew in her heart could not remain, and she was holding it and pleading, never to let her go.

I suppose I'm saying Josie and I will always be together at some level, some deeper one, even if we go out there and don't see each other any more. I can't speak for her. But once I'm out there, I know I'll always keep searching for someone just like her.

Rather, debates are conducted, and crucial decisions arrived at, in the privacy and calm of the great houses of this country. What occurs under the public gaze with so much pomp and ceremony is often the conclusion, or mere ratification, of what has taken place over weeks or months within the walls of such houses.

It's just a bit of nostalgia to pass the time.

when we lost something precious, and we'd looked and looked and still couldn't find it, then we didn't have to be completely heartbroken. We still had that last bit of comfort, thinking one day, when we were grown up, and we were free to travel around the country, we could always go and find it again in Norfolk." I

Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through, or feel we've had enough time.

Perhaps, then, there is something to his advice that I should cease looking back so much, that I should adopt a more positive outlook and try to make the best of what remains of my day.

who don't hate you or wish you any harm, but who nevertheless shudder at the very thought of you—of how you were brought into this world and why—and who dread the idea of your hand brushing against theirs. The first time you glimpse yourself through the eyes of a person like that, it's a cold moment. It's like walking past a mirror you've walked past every day of your life, and suddenly it shows you something else, something troubling and strange.

We all know it. We're modelled from trash. Junkies, prostitutes, winos, tramps. Convicts, maybe, just so long as they aren't psychos. That's what we come from. We all know it, so why don't we say it?

By then, of course, we all knew something I hadn't known back then, which was that none of us could have babies.

for if we're mortal let us at least shine handsomely in God's eyes while we walk this earth! Like

So for a long time you were kept in the shadows, and people did their best not to think about you. And if they did, they tried to convince themselves you weren't really like us. That you were less than human, so it didn't matter.

Porque em algum lugar, lá no fundo, uma parte de nós permaneceu igual: receosos do mundo em volta e — por mais que nos envergonhássemos disso — incapazes de deixar o outro partir de uma vez por todas.

É muito fácil", acrescentei eu, "criticar quando estamos só de passagem.

The fact is, such great affairs will always be beyond the understanding of those such as you and I, and those of us who wish to make our mark must realize that we best do so by concentrating on what is within our realm; that is to say, by devoting our attention to providing the best possible service to those great gentlemen in whose hands the destiny of civilization truly lies.

Sometimes I get so immersed in my own company, if I unexpectedly run into someone I know, it's a bit of a shock and takes me a while to adjust.

It was a fine feeling indeed to be standing up there like that, with the sound of summer all around one and a light breeze on one's face. And I believe it was then, looking on that view, that I began for the first time to adopt a frame of mind appropriate for the journey before me. For it was then that I felt the first healthy flush of anticipation for the many interesting experiences I know these days ahead hold in store for me.

I realised, of course, that other people used these roads; but that night, it seemed to me these dark byways of the country existed just for the likes of us, while the big glittering motorways with their huge signs and super cafés were for everyone else.