Quotes from Kazuo Ishiguro

But you play that passage like it's the memory of love. You're so young, and yet you know desertion, abandonment. That's why you play that third movement the way you do. Most cellists, they play it with joy. But for you, it's not about joy, it's about the memory of a joyful time that's gone for ever.

I believe I have a good idea of what you mean by "professionalism." It appears to mean getting one's way by cheating and manipulating. It appears to mean serving the dictates of greed and advantage rather than those of goodness and the desire to see justice prevail in the world. If that is the "professionalism" you refer to, sir, I don't much care for it and have no wish to acquire it.

A couple may claim to be bonded by love, but we boatmen may see instead resentment, anger, even hatred. Or a great barrenness. Sometimes a fear of loneliness and nothing more. Abiding love that has endured the years—that we see only rarely.

I wonder if what we feel in our hearts today isn't like these raindrops still falling on us from the soaked leaves above, even though the sky itself long stopped raining. I'm wondering if without our memories, there's nothing for it but for our love to fade and die.

Ein Mensch kann irgendwo arbeiten und seine Steuern zahlen, aber am Ende will er dorthin zurück, wo er aufwachsen ist

those content to serve mediocre employers will never know – the satisfaction of being able to say with some reason that one's efforts, in however modest a way, comprise a contribution to the course of history.

We won the right to be free citizens. And it's one of the privileges of being born English that no matter who you are, no matter if you're rich or poor, you're born free and you're born so that you can express your opinion freely, and vote in your member of parliament or vote him out. That's what dignity's really about, if you'll excuse me, sir.

You notice and absorb so much.

You don't see how it is for some parents. Not only must they lose their children, they must lose them to things they don't understand.

Al mismo tiempo, lo que empezaba a tener claro era hasta qué punto los humanos, en su obsesión por evitar la soledad, hacían maniobras que resultaban muy complejas y difíciles de entender, e intuía que era posible que en ningún momento hubiera estado en mis manos la posibilidad de controlar las consecuencias de la excursión a la Cascada Monrgan

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. What is the point in worrying oneself too much about what one could or could not have done to control the course one's life took?

Miss Kenton and my father had arrived at the house at more or less the same time – that is to say, the spring of 1922 – as a consequence of my losing at one stroke the previous housekeeper and under-butler.

a taxi driver in New York regularly addressed his fare in a manner which if repeated in London would end in some sort of fracas, if not in the fellow being frogmarched to the nearest police station.

But Axl, we can't even remember those days. Or any of the years between. We don't remember our fierce quarrels or the small moments we enjoyed and treasured. We don't remember our son or why he's away from us.

Tendrás que descifrar su corazón, aprender todo de él, o jamás conseguirás convertirte en la verdadera Josie.

As I say, these were helpful lessons for me. Not only had I learned that 'changes' were a part of Josie, and that I should be ready to accommodate them, I'd begun to understand also that this wasn't a trait peculiar just to Josie; that people often felt the need to prepare a side of themselves to display to passers-by – as they might in a store window – and that such a display needn't be taken so seriously once the moment had passed.

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa

But for those like us, our fate is to face the world as orphans, chasing through long years the shadows of vanished parents. There is nothing for it but to try and see through our missions to the end, as best we can, for until we do so, we will be permitted no calm.

Klara, you're a new model of Artificial Friend. You're designed to be a companion to a child who's been chosen by their mother and father to be an Enhanced Child. That means they have illnesses or disabilities of one kind or another. You're a specialist in helping such children.

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki The Overstory by Richard Powers The Farm by Joanne Ramos The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

I'm watching an operation, I told her. It's to do with the pancreas. It's amazing, Madame. The surgeon is removing something called the tail. It's a complex and delicate operation, but the surgeon makes it look so easy. He's using all sorts of tools and he's so quick and precise. But what I keep wondering is, could Artificial Friends learn to do things like this themselves?

In the meantime, my father's condition had grown neither better nor worse. As I understood, he was asleep for much of the time, and indeed, I found him so on the few occasions I had a spare moment to ascend to that little attic room. I did not then have a chance actually to converse with him until that second evening after the return of his illness.

Josie often had to go for medical examinations, I said. They took samples of her blood and other things. Josie never liked those examinations. They hurt her. Do you think there could be a way of making those examinations nice for her?

the evening field, hovering against the sky, each creature within it busily changing position, anxious to find a better one, but never straying beyond the boundary of the shape they made together.