Quotes from Kazuo Ishiguro

I've come to appreciate cooking over the years. It's an art, I'm convinced of it, just as noble as painting or poetry. It's not appreciated simply because the product disappears so quickly

What advantage does it bring a man to be so tall? For every high-dangling pear I reached there's been an arrow threatened me would have flown over a smaller man!

But they did eventually set off, with walking sticks and bundles on their backs, on a bright morning of wispy white clouds and a strong breeze.

No creo que sea necesariamente malo. Una vez que encuentres a alguien, Kath, al alguien con quien realmente quieras estar, entonces será estupendo.

A land of fences is so temporary. You can change things as easily as a stage set. I used to act, you know. Sometimes in decent theaters. Wretched theaters too. Fences, what are they? Stage design. That's the nice thing about England. Hedges give a sense of history properly set down in the land.

We hadn't been ready for that. It had never occurred to us to wonder how we  would feel, being seen like that, being the spiders.

Era como si los tres volviéramos a estar unidos y no quisiéramos que nada pudiera ensombrecer nuestro estado de ánimo.

The hard reality is, surely, that for the likes of you and I, there is little choice other than to leave our fate, ultimately, in the hands of those great gentlemen at the hub of this world who employ our services.

So you're waiting, even if you don't quite know it, waiting for the moment when you realise that you really are different to them; that there are people out there, like Madame, 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.

Así que si lo he entendido bien..., bien, pues parece que he desperdiciado mi oportunidad.

you'd have to learn not just her mannerisms but what's deeply inside her? Wouldn't you have to learn her heart?' 'Yes, certainly.' 'And that could be difficult, no? Something beyond even your wonderful capabilities. Because an impersonation wouldn't do, however skillful. You'd have to learn her heart, and learn it fully, or you'll never become Josie in any sense that matters.

What was important to us, as Ruth said one evening when we were sitting in that tiled room in Dover, looking out at the sunset, was that "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.

Something has changed in the character of the younger generation in a way I do not fully understand, and certain aspects of this change are undeniably disturbing.

And I tried to imagine how I would feel if Rosa and I, a long time from now, long after we'd found our different homes, saw each other again by chance on a street. Would I then feel, as Manager had put it, pain alongside my happiness? *

We're going to be leaving here soon. It's not like a game any more. We've got to think carefully.

Hace ya algún tiempo que me cuesta relajarme en mi propia casa. Si estoy solo, me pongo cada vez más nervioso, fastidiado por la idea de que me estoy perdiendo un encuentro crucial en otra parte. Pero si me quedo solo en casa ajena, a menudo me inunda una agradable sensación de paz.

I wonder if it wouldn't have been better if the Almighty had created us all as – well – as sort of plants. You know, firmly embedded in the soil. Then none of this rot about wars and boundaries would have come up in the first place.

Ésa es una lección que se olvida con frecuencia: no intentes comprender, no deduzcas, no interpretes: eso lo puede hacer cualquiera en una oficina a mil kilómetros de distancia. Da igual que la situación te resulte ininteligible. Cuenta lo que ves, lo cercano, lo comprobable. Ya está.

And if some of us are prepared to sacrifice much in life in order to pursue such aspirations, surely that is in itself, whatever the outcome, cause for pride and contentment.

A friend of mine's just had a baby," Niki said. "She's really pleased. I can't think why. Horrible screaming thing she's produced.

Now I wonder what it could be you are reading there, Mr Stevens.' 'Simply a book, Miss Kenton.' 'I can see that, Mr Stevens. But what sort of book -- that is what interests me.

You're always there, taking it all in. So you know as well as I do. The way she keeps getting at me. There's no reason a person has to take all that. She pushes it too far, then thinks it can all be fixed with a nice picture. Send the AF over with it. Well she has to understand. Things aren't always that easily fixed.

It's not faith you need. Only rationality

But I could not escape the feeling that what I was really seeing was a weariness with life; the spark which had once made her such a lively, and at times volatile person seemed now to have gone.