Quotes from Arthur Golden

A shopkeeper who leaves his window open can hardly be angry at the rainstorm for ruining his wares.

Every man has his destiny. But who needs to go to a fortune-teller to find it?

Pumpkin was a girl who looked as if she could grow fat quickly, given the chance.

Sometimes," he sighed, "I think the things I remember are more real than the things I see.

I know that our world is no more permanent than a wave rising on the ocean. Whatever our struggles and triumphs, however we may suffer them, all too soon they bleed into a wash, just like watery ink on paper.

And yet when his death happened only a few months later, I understood that he left me at the end of his long life just as naturally as the leaves fall from the trees.

În zilele noastre, oamenii par s? cread? c? vieÈ›ile lor sunt pe de-a-ntregul construite prin opÈ›iune; dar pe vremea aceea ne consideram buc??i de lut care p?strau pe vecie amprentele celor care le atinseser?.

What standards are those, really? I expect you to go through life with your eyes open! If you keep your destiny in mind, every moment in life becomes an opportunity for moving closer to it.

Es raro que nazca un cisne de un pájaro común. El cisne que sigue viviendo en el árbol de sus padres acaba muriendo; por eso quienes están dotados de belleza y de talentos llevan la carga de encontrar su propio camino.

Adversity is like a strong wind. I don't mean just

Los sueños son muy peligrosos: abrasan como el fuego y a veces nos consumen completamente.

that it holds us back from places we might otherwise go. It also tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that afterward we see ourselves as we really are, and not merely as we might like to be.

De joven se sueña todo tipo de tonterías, Sayuri. Las esperanzas son como los adornos del pelo. De joven se pueden llevar demasiados. Pero cuando envejeces, tan solo uno ya te hace parecer tonta.

Two men are equals—true equals—only when they both have equal confidence.

Pero ahora sé que nuestro mundo no es nunca más permanente que una ola que se eleva sobre el océano. Cualesquiera que sean nuestras luchas y nuestras victorias, comoquiera que las padezcamos, enseguida desaparecen en la corriente, como la tinta acuosa sobre el papel.

A tree may look as beautiful as ever; but when you notice the insects infesting it, and the tips of the branches that are brown from disease, even the trunk seems to lose some of its magnificence.

The swan who goes on living in its parents' tree will die; this is why those who are beautiful and talented bear the burden of finding their own way in the world.

This time all the historical details and things were right. But I'd written it again in third person, and people found it dry. I decided to throw that one away.

I studied Japanese language and culture in college and graduate school, and afterward went to work in Tokyo, where I met a young man whose father was a famous businessman and whose mother was a geisha. He and I never discussed his parentage, which was an open secret, but it fascinated me.

Passion can quickly slip to jealousy, or even hatred.

I worried she might spend an afternoon chatting with me about the sights and then wish me best of luck.

I had to wonder if men were so blinded by beauty that they would feel privileged to live their lives with an actual demon, so long as it was a beautiful demon.

You know, the men go to tea houses with the expectation that they will have a nice quiet evening and not read about it the next morning in the newspaper.

I don't think any of us can speak frankly about pain until we are no longer enduring it.