Quotes from Banana Yoshimoto

The room was so unearthly quiet, I lost all sense of time being divided into seconds. I felt that I was the only person alive and moving in a world brought to a stop.

Although I was raised with love, I was always lonely.

Con ng??i không khu?t ph?c dÆ°á»›i hoàn c?nh hay nh?ng th? lá»±c t? bên ngoài, mà s? thua cuá»™c b?t ??u t? chính bên trong

But 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. I'm grateful for it.

Most people are constantly perpetrating little acts of violence on others, even when they don't mean to.

If you--or anyone on this train, for that matter--thought of life as a kind of train, instead of worrying only about your usual destinations, you'd be surprised how far you could go, just with the money you have in your wallet right now.

Akira often gets mad at me because he thinks I'm too nice to strangers, and cold as a fish at home. What can I do? He's right, but that's the way I am. I'm more enthusiastic about people I've just met, whom I barely know at all, than with old friends. Before the awkwardness of a new acquaintance has worn off, I'm ready to offer myself up to that person.

Los grandes hombres, sólo con existir, emiten una luz que ilumina a quienes están a su alrededor, y cuando esta luz se apaga proyecta una sombra pesada, irremediablemente.

No matter what, I want to continue living with the awareness that I will die. Without that, I am not alive. That is what makes the life I have now possible. Inching one's way along a steep cliff in the dark: on reaching the highway, one breathes a sigh of relief. Just when one can't take any more, one sees the moonlight. Beauty that seems to infuse itself into the heart: I know about that.

You might come to fear the next time you get a cold; it will be as bad as this, but if you just hold steady, it won't be. For the rest of your life. That's how it works. You could take the negative view and live in fear: Will it happen again? But it won't hurt so much if you just accept it as a part of life.

I just want to rebel completely against everything in society that beat it into me that life would turn out okay if I only did the right things

A particular variety of loneliness, like peering deep into the darkness. It's only natural, when two separate universes touch.

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 see two lovers looking over the edge of the cauldron of hell. Are they contemplating a double suicide? This means their love will end in hell.' I couldn't stop laughing.

When we start something new, at first it is very muddy, and clouded. But soon, it becomes a clean stream, whose flows conducts itself quietly, through spontaneous movements.

Cuando crezca más y más, me pasarán cosas diferentes. Muchas veces me hundiré hasta el fondo. Muchas veces sufriré, muchas veces reapareceré. No habrá derrota. No dejaré de luchar

It struck me that family, work, friendships, engagements - all of these were like spiderwebs placed to protect people from the more distressing colors that lurked within themselves. The more safety nets you had under you, the less far you had to fall, and if you were lucky you might live your entire life without even noticing what was below.

El hambre nocturna es un espíritu maligno que actúa independientemente de la personalidad de cada uno.

La sensación de no ver el final del túnel todavía no se había disipado. En esos días, yo tenía que contentarme con el presente, porque temía que, si apartaba la mirada de él, la pena me embargaría y, sin embargo, precisamente eso contribuía a ese extraño estado de felicidad

these people, struggling so hard to impose a shape on a life when life has no shape

As people we narrowly get by with our lives each day, energy from our soft, delicate actions appearing like cherry blossoms, only once, and once for a short while. Eventually petals fall to the ground.

Quando lo stesso tema si presenta per ben due volte in poco tempo, bisogna prestarvi attenzione.

Could it actually be true that tears help people to heal?

No recuerdo si esto me había ocurrido con anterioridad, pero cuando me enfrenté a las tinieblas de mi corazón, cuando me sentí herida en lo más hondo y me rompí en pedazos, exhausta, de improviso emergió de mi una fuerza inexplicable".