Banana Yoshimoto

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

— Banana Yoshimoto

Over and over, we begin again.

— Banana Yoshimoto

Nothing exists in this world but me and my bed…” (p. 141).

— Banana Yoshimoto

The ritual of our daily lives permeate our very bodies.

— Banana Yoshimoto

“El arrepentimiento nunca llega antes”

— Banana Yoshimoto

It was so gorgeous it almost felt like sadness.

— Banana Yoshimoto

“I’ve traveled a long way today, I often think to myself.”

— Banana Yoshimoto

“Maybe then our stopped time would move again.” The”

— Banana Yoshimoto

This is what it means to be loved... when someone wants to touch you, to be tender...

— Banana Yoshimoto

Someday, without fail, everyone will disappear, scattered into the blackness of time.

— Banana Yoshimoto

“Al recordar su sonrisa, no sé por qué, me duele el corazón.”

— Banana Yoshimoto

“willingness to give in is rampant in this society of ours.”

— Banana Yoshimoto

I love feeling the rhythm of other people's lives. It's like traveling.

— Banana Yoshimoto

No matter where you are, you're always a bit on your own, always an outsider.

— Banana Yoshimoto

“you find yourself face-to-face with the enormousness of the world as a whole.”

— Banana Yoshimoto

She was still there inside me now, just as she always was: a life put on hold, a memory I didn't know…

— Banana Yoshimoto

“But that’s only because we have to be that way in order to get on with our lives. Just because people are…

— Banana Yoshimoto

“I thought for a moment. Isn't it strange how we unconsciously search for something that will make us cry, only when we…

— Banana Yoshimoto

Every time I look into his eyes I just want to take the ice cream or whatever I've got in my hand…

— Banana Yoshimoto

“I felt sure of this. However much I loved him, and as beautiful as the world was, none of it was powerful…

— Banana Yoshimoto

Truly great people emit a light that warms the hearts of those around them. When that light has been put out, a…

— Banana Yoshimoto

“As long as it had remained a mystery, I could have dealt with it--no matter how enormous a mystery it became. Now…

— Banana Yoshimoto

Why were we so far apart, even when we were together? It was a nice loneliness, like the sensation of washing your…

— Banana Yoshimoto

“You don’t necessarily have to want to become an adult; it happens as a matter of course, as you go, making choices.…

— Banana Yoshimoto

People who are going to get along really well know it almost as soon as they meet. You spend a little while…

— Banana Yoshimoto

Of course, it’s true that sometimes the pink at sunrise somehow seems brighter than the pink at sunset, and that when you’re…

— Banana Yoshimoto

“Actually, time had always been passing. I had just managed to avoid thinking about it very much. It would be hard for…

— Banana Yoshimoto

I wonder what it felt to move to a country where you didn't grow up. I had thought about that often since…

— Banana Yoshimoto

At that moment I had a thrilling sharp intuition. I knew it as if I held it in my hands: In the…

— Banana Yoshimoto

There are many days when all the awful things that happen make you sick at heart, when the path before you is…

— Banana Yoshimoto

No one can survive childhood without being wounded. Everyone remembers at least one time when their parents rejected them, pushed them away,…

— Banana Yoshimoto

On nights like this when the air is so clear, you end up saying things you ordinarily wouldn’t. Without even noticing what…

— Banana Yoshimoto

“Your love is different from mine. What I mean is, when you close your eyes, for that moment, the center of the…

— Banana Yoshimoto

“ Life is a performance, I thought. Perthaps the word "illusion" would have meant more or less the same thing, but to…

— Banana Yoshimoto

“We've done so much together, wherever I go and whatever I see, I think of you. Newborn babies; the pattern on the…

— Banana Yoshimoto

“That night, having wriggled down into my futon all alone, I found myself in the grips of a wrenching sadness. I was…

— Banana Yoshimoto

“Just because things turned out badly in the end doesn’t mean that anything has changed in my relationship with my mother. Everything…

— Banana Yoshimoto

“From the bottom of my heart, I wanted to give up; I wanted to give up on living. There was no denying…

— Banana Yoshimoto

“It was only after my head started reeling and my body started weaving and I tumbled into bed that I'd hear that…

— Banana Yoshimoto

“We all believe we can choose our own path from among the many alternatives. But perhaps it's more accurate to say that…

— Banana Yoshimoto