Quotes from Kazuo Ishiguro

After all, what can we gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished.

Firstly, we must widen our common literary world to include many more voices from beyond our comfort zones of the elite first-world cultures.

There was another life that i might have had, but i am having this one...

Continentals are unable to be butlers because they are as a breed incapable of the emotional restraint which only the English race is capable of. Continentals

It is important to learn how to fail, to learn how to be wrong in a way that minimizes pain to you and others and maximizes what you can learn from the experience.

When my own time comes, will I too long for the sea? I think I will be content enough with the soil. And I will not demand the exact spot, but let it be within this country Horace and I have spent the years roaming contentedly.

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, and I saw it was possible that the consequences of Morgan's Falls had at no stage been within my control.

I do, Axl. But then again 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.

the evening is the best part of the day

Richard Carlisle,' he said with a cheerful smile as I rose to shake it.

His lordship was a courageous man. He chose a certain path in life, it proved to be a misguided one, but there, he chose it, he can say that at least. As for myself, I cannot even claim that. 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?

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.

Sabemos que está en tu mano hacerlo. Así que te estamos pidiendo que nos ayudes. Te lo plantearé de otro modo: te lo pido yo. Te pido que ayudes a mi hijo a tener una oportunidad en este mundo.

All in all, this is an excellent place to partake of morning tea, but surprisingly few of the inhabitants of Taunton seem to wish to avail themselves of it. At

Ask anybody, they'll all tell you. The evening's the best part of the day.

Surely it is enough that the likes of you and I at least try to make our small contribution count for something true and worthy. 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.

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

You spend so much time with someone, you find you get used to him.

The Island was in the center of the kitchen, and perhaps to emphasize its fixed-down nature, had pale brown tiles that mimicked the bricks of a building.

I'm proud of you. A good son. I hope I've been a good father to you. I suppose I haven't.' 'I'm afraid we're extremely busy now, but we can talk again in the morning.

I can't even say I made my own mistakes. Really – one has to ask oneself – what dignity is there in that?

Until recently, I didn't think that humans could choose loneliness.

We drove past a large creature with numerous limbs and eyes, then even as I watched, a crack appeared down its center. As it divided itself, I realized it had been, all along, two separate people – a runner and a dog walk woman – moving in opposite directions who for an instant happened to be passing one another. Then came a store with a sign saying 'Eat In Take Out' and in front of it, a lost baseball cap on the sidewalk.

Do you believe in the human heart? Do you think there is such a thing? Something that makes each of us special and unique? And if we just suppose that there is. Then don't you think, in order to truly learn Josie, you'd have to learn not just her mannerisms but what's deeply inside her? Wouldn't you have to learn her heart?