Banana Yoshimoto Quotes

Sometimes people put up walls, not to keep others out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.

As I grow older, much older, I will experience many things, and I will hit rock bottom again and again. Again and again I will suffer; again and again I will get back on my feet. I will not be defeated. I won't let my spirit be destroyed.

The sky was incredibly far away, and beautiful enough to make a person wonder why our hearts are never so free.

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

Truly happy memories always live on, shining. Over time, one by one, they come back to life.

Once you've recognized your own limits, you've raised yourself to a higher level of being, since you're closer to the real you.

Over and over, we begin again.

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

People aren't overcome by situations or outside forces. Defeat comes from within.

When things get really bad, you take comfort in the placeness of a place.

It’s a marvelous thing, the ocean. For some reason when two people sit together looking out at it, they stop caring whether they talk or stay silent. You never get tired of watching it. And no matter how rough the waves get, you’re never bothered by the noise the water makes by the commotion of the surface - it never seems too loud, or too wild.

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

When was it I realized that, on this truly dark and solitary path we all walk, the only way we can light is our own? Although I was raised with love, I was always lonely. Someday, without fail, everyone will disappear, scattered into the blackness of time.

But I have my life, I’m living it. It’s twisted, exhausting, uncertain, and full of guilt, but nonetheless, there’s something there.

What was important wasn't the fireworks, it was that we were together this evening, together in this place, looking up into the sky at the same time.

The ritual of our daily lives permeate our very bodies.

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

Love is the kind of thing that's already happening by the time you notice it, that's how it works, and no matter how old you get, that doesn't change. Except that you can break it up into two entirely distinct types -- love where there's an end in sight and love where there isn't.

It was so gorgeous it almost felt like sadness.

The night glittered brilliantly then.

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

In places where a loved one has died, time stops for eternity. If I stand on the very spot, one says to oneself, like a prayer, might I feel the pain he felt? They say that on a visit to an old castle or whatever, the history of the place, the presence of people who walked there many years ago, can be felt in the body. Before, when I heard things like that, I would think, what are they talking about? But i felt I understood it now.

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

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

Everything that had happened was shockingly beautiful, enough to make you crazy.