Quotes from Kazuo Ishiguro

I'd remembered of course that I should be grateful as always, but hadn't been able to keep the disappointment from my mind.

My imagination came alive when I moved away from the immediate world around me.

I'm not saying it's always easy. We all have our bad days. But compared to what we had before, we feel like…we're really living for the first time.

But I can see him studying his newspaper, breaking off regularly to look up at the passers-by on the pavement outside. From the way he does this, I had thought at first that he was waiting for a companion, but it would seem he wishes merely to greet acquaintances as they pass by.

The game's sealed when a player gives up having any strategy at all.

For the likes of yourself, it's always been easy to exert your influence. You can count the most powerful in the land as your friends. But the likes of us here, sir, we can go year in year out and never even lay eyes on a real gentleman

This is why I find it so hard to be civil around people like Capaldi. When they do what they do, say what they say, it feels like they're taking from me what I hold most precious in this life.

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?

It's not so bad now,' she said, even though the rain was as steady as ever. 'Let's just go out there. Then maybe the sun will come out too.

And I could see the weariness in the boy AF's walk, and wondered what it might be like to have found a home and yet to know that your child didn't want you.

Up to a point, no doubt, there is some truth in what he says: in a country such as ours, people may indeed have a certain duty to think about great affairs and form their opinions.

we are all much too complacent about the great wonders that surround us. I mean, all this we've been talking about. Treaties and boundaries and reparations and occupations. But Mother Nature just carries on her own sweet way.

We must each of us ... be grateful for what we do have. ... You really musn't let any more foolish ideas come between yourself and the happiness you deserve.

it is the very lack of obvious drama or spectacle that sets the beauty of our land apart.

it is perhaps in the nature of coming away on a trip such as this that one is prompted towards such surprising new perspectives on topics one imagined one had long ago thought through thoroughly.

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?

Chân tr?i tít t?p là má»™t Ä'i?u t?t ??p khi anh còn tr?. NhÆ°ng ??n tu?i này r?i thì anh ph?i... anh ph?i có ???c má»™t góc nhìn má»›i.

The English are fond of their idea that our race has an instinct for suicide, as if further explanations are unnecessary; for that was all they reported, that she was Japanese and that she had hung herself in her room.

They were afraid because we were new models, and they feared that before long their children would decide it was time to have them thrown away, to be replaced by AFs like us.

Not only had I learned that 'changes' were a part of Josie...I'd begun to understand also that this wasn't a trait particular 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.

I'm happy Josie has such a good friend. I hope my presence will never come in the way of such a good friendship.' 'Hope not. But a lot of things come in the way of friendships.

Once in a while – and I soon got better at watching those at the window while appearing to gaze at the RPO Building – a child would come to stare at us, and there would be a sadness there, or sometimes an anger, as though we'd done something wrong. A child like this could easily change the next moment and begin laughing or waving like the rest of them, but after our second day in the window, I learned quickly to tell the difference.

Come possono guarire le vecchie ferite nell'abbondanza dei vermi che ancora le infettano? Come può durare per sempre una pace costruita sul massacro?

I'm surprised someone would desire so much a path that would leave her in loneliness. Until recently, I didn't think that humans could choose loneliness. That there were sometimes forces more powerful than the wish to avoid loneliness.