Quotes from Banana Yoshimoto

Everything in my life revolves around people playing at being something.

So, have you been enjoying yourself these days, Kazami?' I'm having lots of fun.' It was true. That made the sense of regret even keener, that this time in my life would soon be a thing of the past. I felt as if I could understand a little of what my mother had been through, and the feelings she may have had at different times. I wasn't a child anymore, and this made me feel awfully lonesome, and utterly alone.

If a person hasn't ever experienced true despair, she grows old never knowing how to evaluate where she is in life; never understanding what joy really is.

There was a real sense of comfort but at the same time it felt oddly tense. The feeling that every little things we said, these conversations, at any moment, they could stop being possible, and so they were precious, it was that feeling, and the sense of the miracle of this shared moment, here and now. Why were we so far apart, even when we are together? It was anice loneliness, like th sensation of washing your face with cold water.

I was thinking, listlessly, is this what it means to be happy? But now I feel it in my gut. Why is it we have so little choice? We live like the lowliest worms. Always defeated – defeated we make dinner, we eat, we sleep. Everyone we love is dying. Still, to cease living is unacceptable.

I wanted to hold everything in place with my thin little arm and weak spirit. I wanted to do what I could with my unreliable body to try and deal with the many scary things that were going to start happening from now on. I wanted to try.

No, I just wanted to recapture the incredibly vivid love we'd had at first- the love I'd shared with the tall man standing next to me, with the man I adored.

Può darsi che in futuro stando con me conoscerai dolori, guai, problemi ma, se vuoi, costruiamo insieme una vita complicata, ma più felice di qualsiasi vita solitaria

I got up and sprinted into the ocean, chasing my father. I'm in love with the moment when the water switches from being so cold you want to leap up into the air to something that feels just right against your skin.

I guess you just lacked the courage, the guts to strike out on your own. And so when it all came to an end, you were still living that way, a life you never meant to be anything more than a stopgap, filling in for the real thing.

The night glittered brilliantly then.

Nakajima's past would always be there, so the foundation could crumble at any moment. That's what happens, I realized, when people destroy other people.

Tutti di solito sono convinti che le persone si separano perché una si è stancata dell'altra, per propria volontà o per volontà dell'altra persona. Ma non è così. I periodi finiscono, come cambiano le stagioni

But every time my thoughts reached this point, every time, my desire to speak would vanish. And so we remained precisely as we were, making no waves, at a standstill.

Here in this ocean, in the midst of all this water, with the red flags on those distant buoys flapping in the sea breeze, I find myself unable to treat our house in Tokyo as anything but a dream.

Actually, time had always been passing. I had just managed to avoid thinking about it very much. It would be hard for me to recapture that feeling—life wasn't so easy anymore. Small things pricked my heart. In those early days, I lived in a world of overwhelming sensations; it was like I had just fallen out of love.

I guess my mom was all he had-the one flower that smelled like freedom

With Lizard, I felt overwhelmed by the desire to touch her skin, to kiss her, hold her, make love to her,no matter how it happened, I just had to have her, Lizard and no one else. Right then and there. Tears came to my eyes, I wanted her so much.

I got dressed to begin another day. Over and over, we begin again. (Kitchen, 103)

Sooner or later people are definitely going to give up if you don't give them back as much as they're giving you.

It was the truth. I felt a yearning love for every instant that passed.

it was clear that the best thing to do was to adopt a sort of muddled cheerfulness

Things that don't matter at all to one person can hurt another so deeply it seems as bad as dying.

People look so beautiful when their expressions show that they know they have a future.