Quotes from Banana Yoshimoto

I like people who are always doing things that would never have occurred to me at that moment.

I carried the last of my things in both hands. When I thought, now at last I won't be torn between two places, I began to feel strangely shaky, close to tears.

September' by Earth Wind & Fire and Y?min's 'Autumn Travels.

Ich war glücklich. Nicht, dass ich high gewesen wäre. High zu sein ist immer nur ein partieller Zustand, für den man später die Rechnung bekommt. Eines Nachts, wie aus heiterem Himmel, holt einen der Teil, den man hinter sich gelassen zu haben glaubte, dann um so nachdrücklicher wieder ein. Mein Zustand dagegen kam den Ausdruck der "inneren Ruhe" näher.

That resplendent space created by a piece of fiction can really expand the width of time... Clearly there is a spot somewhere inside our heads that records the feelings we had when we read the book, and it stays with us forever

beyond that, I couldn't say. There's no point thinking about the future. That

In questo mondo non c'è posto per le cose tristi. Nessun posto.

Era come se tutte le cose che vedevo fossero coperte da un filtro e io non riuscissi a pensare a niente in modo semplice e diretto. Ero stata catturata dal potere di quella notte.

fighting to bridge those gaps isn't what really matters. The most important thing is to know them inside and out, as differences, and to understand why certain people are the way they are. My

This was what it took, I realized, to be something that survived. Not just constancy, or strength. But—like the ever-flowing river—to engulf everything that came your way and move swiftly on as though it had never been.

If you don't say what you're thinking, you end up lying when you really need to speak up

I crawled back under the covers, still staring at that cold-looking, powerful snowstorm outside. My cheeks burned. Eriko was no more. Watching that scene, I really knew it for the first time. No matter how it turned out with Yuichi and me, no matter how long or beautiful a life I would live, I would never see her again.

Quando vedono troppe cose, gli esseri umani diventano stranamente tristi.

if I put something in the oven before it had come to temperature, or if I got the steam going before I had everything chopped, that sort of triviality (or so I thought) was precisely reflected in the color and shape of the final product.

Avrei voluto che arrivasse presto il mattino. Volevo bagnare il mio corpo nella sua luce abbagliante, quella che purifica ogni cosa, come facevo adesso nell'acqua di quel bagno termale. Perché mi rendevo conto che, come succede quando si ha la febbre alta e non si riesce a ricordare la vita normale, per il momento non potevo vivere al di fuori di quella notte.

To the extent that I had come to understand that despair does not necessarily result in annihilation, that one can go on as usual in spite of it, I had become hardened. Was that what it means to be an adult, to live with ugly ambiguities?

Il tempo si allunga e si contrae. Quando si allunga, come una gomma ci imprigiona all'infinito nelle sue braccia. Non lascia liberi così facilmente. Ci troviamo risospinti nel luogo dove eravamo prima, o abbandonati nel buio, dove non si sposta neanche di un secondo, ignorando i nostri sensi tesi e gli occhi serrati.

I've always been like that—if I'm not pushed to the brink, I won't move.

For all I know . . . my stomach clenched. She might be more desperate than she appeared, and could disappear just like Dad had. Then, in an instant, I'd never be able to be near her again.

if you come to know lots of different people's dreams, like you did, maybe you reach a point from which you can't return, and maybe that weighted down on you so heavily that in the end there was nothing you could do but die.

To all the readers who do not know me personally, who were kind enough to take the trouble to read my small effort, I know no greater happiness than that it may have cheered you, even a little. Surely we will meet some day, and until that day, I pray you will live happily.

Quando eravamo abbracciati, conoscevo parole che non erano parole. Mi sembrava straordinario stare così vicino a qualcuno che non erano i genitori, qualcuno diverso da me, un altro.

We're all brothers and sisters when we're in trouble, aren't we?

The only thing to do was to work steadily, humbly, and carefully, without trying to complicate things or make them other than what they were.