Quotes from Kazuo Ishiguro

Josie suffers from a very rare disease, he said. It's caused by a genetic mutation. But the good news is that researchers are working on a gene therapy that could correct the mutation. It's still in the experimental stage, but there's a good chance it'll work. If it does, Josie could be cured. And I wondered, as I often did these days, whether Artificial Friends could help with such work.

And yet what precisely is this 'greatness'? Just where, or in what, does it lie? I am quite aware it would take a far wiser head than mine to answer such a question, but if I were forced to hazard a guess, I would say that it is the very lack of obvious drama or spectacle that sets the beauty of our land apart. What is pertinent is the calmness of that beauty, its sense of restraint. It is as though the land knows of its own beauty, of its own greatness, and feels no need to shout it out.

You see, I trusted. I trusted in his lordship's wisdom. All those years I served him, I trusted I was doing something worthwhile. I can't even say I made my own mistakes. Really – one has to ask oneself – what dignity is there in that?

it was indeed 'as though he hoped to find some precious jewel he had dropped there'.

Indeed – why should I not admit it? – at that moment, my heart was breaking.

the same time, what was becoming clear to me was the extent to which humans, in their wish to escape loneliness, made maneuvers that were very complex and hard to fathom

One can't be forever dwelling on what might have been.

Poor creatures. I wish I could help you. But now you're by yourself.

the wisdom to tame dragons. It's my king's fear Lord Brennus means to capture Querig to fight in the ranks of his army. This she-dragon would make a fierce soldier indeed, and Brennus would then rightly harbour ambition. It's for this I'm sent to destroy the dragon before her savagery turns on all who oppose Lord Brennus. Sir Gawain, you look aghast, but I speak sincerely.

I have come here to relate something to you, Father.' 'Then relate it briefly and concisely. I haven't all morning to listen to you chatter.

It is sometimes said that butlers only truly exist in England. Other countries, whatever title is actually used, have only manservants.

You're much the senior in years, Master Axl, but in matters of blood, it may be I'm the elder and you the youth. I've seen dark hatred as bottomless as the sea on the faces of old women and tender children, and some days felt such hatred myself.

A theoretical chance. Atlas Brookings may make a big thing of it, but it's less than two percent. That's all. Their intake of unlifteds is less than two percent.

For they found they became oddly uncomfortable whenever the topic was broached, and before long an understanding had grown between them, in the silent way understandings do between a husband and wife of many years, to avoid the subject as much as possible. I say "as much as possible," for there appeared at times to be a need—a compulsion, you might say—to which one or the other would have to yield.

The Mother was wearing a coat – a thin, dark, high-ranking one – which moved with the wind around her body, so that for a moment she reminded me of the dark birds that perched on the high traffic signals even as the winds blew fiercely.

I suppose they have a point though,' he said. 'I don't belong here. This is a meeting for lifted kids.

Do you believe in the human heart? I don't mean simply the organ, obviously. I'm speaking in the poetic sense. The human heart. Do you think there is such a thing? Something that makes each of us special and individual?

És legalább az a kiváltsága megvolt, hogy élete végén elmondhatta: a saját hibáit követte el. (…) Megválasztotta, hogy milyen úton járjon az életben, s kiderült, hogy rosszul választott. Ami viszont engem illet, hát még ezt sem mondhatom el.

In bantering lies the key to human warmth

It was the sort of place one might imagine lorry drivers stopping for a sandwich

Nuestra desgracia fue haber sido hombres normales en una época que no lo era.

What do you think dignity's all about?' The directness of this inquiry did, I admit, take me rather by surprise. 'It's rather a hard thing to explain in a few words, sir,' I said. 'But I suspect it comes down to not removing one's clothing in public'.

the English landscape at its finest - such as I saw it this morning - possesses a quality that the landscapes of other nations, however more superficially dramatic, inevitably fail to possess.

It was one of those events which at a crucial stage in one's development arrive to challenge and stretch one to the limit of one's ability and beyond, so that thereafter one has new standards by which to judge oneself.