“The sky was always full of birdsong and evening smells, piano music from a window, the stone buildings glowing against the blue,… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“The emotional question became why Susy had rejected me. I was interested in that shift, from actively wanting to actively not wanting.” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“It continues to impress me how fluently Americans, even immigrants like her, speak of their achievements.” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“It was to do with the glazed look that always comes over me when faced with somebody who has offended or hurt… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“Mizuko loved reading the dictionary. She liked it when there were multiple meanings for words and when opposite meanings could be contained.” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“Yeah!' I said again, widening my eyes and nodding slowly but emphatically to show that she had seen into my own symmetrical… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“Was this what the city would look like when knowledge was no longer enough? When the desire to turn inward, surrendering entirely… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“And yet how treacherous, I thought, after such neutrality, bordering on indifference, and occaisonally open hostility, when the whole city finally seemed… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“When I read it now it's like I have broken into a reality that is not mine, and when I step out… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“I know I only want him,' she said between sobs, the syllables all wrong, 'because he doesn't want me . How is… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“I went back to my room and spent all night contemplating whether it was possible in life not to be constantly let… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“Working out that I am not Mizuko has been an important step towards feeling better. If I have hit on a moral,… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“I felt my own self-sufficiency, my own Walden Pond, seeping out of me as if I'd sprung a leak. Self soaked into… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“Mizuko wonders if the GPS is still monitoring their progress. She has the distinct feeling of being watched by something in the… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“For a while this seemed to do the trick, and I felt that whatever contamination I had helped to spread, the boundaries… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“So there was no explicit bonding. Certainly not the kind you might be expecting if you like films like The Parent Trap… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“I'm going to have to get an entirely new social scene if I want to avoid him,' she said, hunting for evidence… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“Or maybe it was already too late; you only get one first love. She was mine, but I had not been hers.… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“I saw a doctor. I went in case there were any remnants of the summer inside me—sticky, slender fish bones that needed… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“It never ceased to amaze me how she just had the facts always, in her head. It occured to me that if,… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“It was to do with the glazed look that always comes over me when faced with somebody who has offended or hurt me and… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share
“I was on the sidewalk, buffering, wondering if it was okay to follow people in real life.” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share
“That night I dreamt about the roses laid at the wrong feet—the feet of the nurse. Each bit of the dream was like a… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share
“I saw a doctor. I went in case there were any remnants of the summer inside me—sticky, slender fish bones that needed to be… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share
“I felt the nauseous shiver in my stomach—everything from rage to empathy to morning sickness—that I had grown used to and now thought of… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share
“A neon-pink 3 flickered and instantly disappeared again into the dark. The sight of it on my own device now made me sick. I… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share
“I felt my own self-sufficiency, my own Walden Pond, seeping out of me as if I'd sprung a leak. Self soaked into everything around… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share
“ Roses are like kamikaze love pilots. Roses are like suicide love bombers. ” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share
“Waking in the morning, I had to remember grief all over again. It was sunny, a white winter sun, and that made me sad.” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share
“But you'd hope anyone would feel sympathy if they actually saw someone face to face, pleading for a chance.” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share
“From watching Silvia, I'd learned that one of the worst things about being ill is that most people find your suffering opaque. With this… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share
“Begin at the beginning. Know nothing. Tabula rasa. At the same time, part of me wanted to distinguish myself. To let her sense the… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share
“Tokyo was a place you could quite happily exist alone and be self-contained. It seemed to promise that it was better to be by… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share
“It continues to impress me how fluently Americans, even immigrants like her, speak of their achievements.” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share
