If you don’t say what you’re thinking, you end up lying when you really need to speak up. Banana Yoshimoto More Quotes by Banana Yoshimoto More Quotes From Banana Yoshimoto It occurred to me that if I were a ghost, this ambiance was what I'd miss most: the ordinary, day-to-day bustle of the living. Ghosts long, I'm sure, for the stupidest, most unremarkable things. Banana Yoshimoto ordinary-days missing long Everything that had happened was shockingly beautiful, enough to make you crazy. Banana Yoshimoto crazy enough beautiful Ultimately, though, it's living people that frighten me the most. It's always seemed to me that nothing could be scarier than a person, because as dreadful places can be, they're still just places; and no matter how awful ghosts might seem, they're just dead people. I always thought that the most terrifying things anyone could ever think up were the things living people came up with. Banana Yoshimoto might people thinking Over and over, we begin again. Banana Yoshimoto bare-trees begin-again Each one of us continues to carry the heart of each self we've ever been, at every stage along the way, and a chaos of everything good and rotten. And we have to carry this weight all alone, through each day that we live. We try to be as nice as we can to the people we love, but we alone support the weight of ourselves. Banana Yoshimoto nice self heart Fate is a ladder on which you cannot afford to miss a single rung. To skip out on even one step would mean you'll never make it to the top. Banana Yoshimoto fate missing mean You have the nicest window, you know? None of the others can even compete. It´s not flashy like the others, or bleary – your window gives of this nice, quiet light. Banana Yoshimoto nice light giving It was so gorgeous it almost felt like sadness. Banana Yoshimoto gorgeous felt sadness The place I like best in this world is the kitchen. No matter where it is, no matter what kind, if it’s a kitchen, if it’s a place where they make food, it’s fine with me. Ideally it should be well broken in. Lots of tea towels, dry and immaculate. Where tile catching the light (ting! Ting!)” (p. 3). Banana Yoshimoto kitchen light broken Every time I look into his eyes I just want to take the ice cream or whatever I've got in my hand and rub it into his face. That's how much I like him. Banana Yoshimoto ice-cream eye hands This is what it means to be loved... when someone wants to touch you, to be tender. Banana Yoshimoto want mean I felt how important the simplest things were, like feeling proud, finding something funny, stretching yourself, retreating into yourself. Banana Yoshimoto proud important feelings No one can survive childhood without being wounded. Everyone remembers at least one time when their parents rejected them, pushed them away, even though they may have still been in the womb, blind, and unable to speak. That's why, as adults, we all look for someone to become our parents again, and for someone to look after us in times of need. And we search for a person to live with who can provide the companionship we so desperately want. Banana Yoshimoto childhood adults parent Why is it that everything I eat when I’m with you is so delicious?’ I laughed. ‘Could it be that you’re satisfying hunger and lust at the same time? Banana Yoshimoto hunger laughed lust Chilled-looking people walking along the riverside, the snow beginning, faintly, to pile up on the roofs of cars, the bare trees shaking their heads left and right, dry leaves tossing in the wind. The silver of the metal window sash sparkling coldly. Soon after, I heard sensei call, "Mikage! Are you awake? It's snowing, look! It's snowing!" "I'm coming!" I called out, standing up. I got dressed to begin another day. Over and over, we begin again. Banana Yoshimoto snow wind people This world of ours is piled high with farewells and goodbyes of so many different kinds, like the evening sky renewing itself again and again from one instant to the next-and I didn’t want to forget a single one. Banana Yoshimoto farewell sky goodbye In the uncertain ebb and flow of time and emotions, much of one’s life history is etched in the senses. And things of no particular importance, or irreplaceable things, can suddenly resurface in a café one winter night. Banana Yoshimoto ebb-and-flow winter night There are many, many difficult times, god knows. If a person wants to stand on her own two feet, I recommend undertaking the care and feeding of something. It could be children, or it could be house plants, you know? By doing that you come to understand your own limitations. That's where it starts. Banana Yoshimoto feet two children There are many days when all the awful things that happen make you sick at heart, when the path before you is so steep you can’t bear to look. Not even love can rescue a person from that. Still, enveloped in the twilight coming from the west, there she was, watering the plants with her slender, graceful hands, in the midst of a light so sweet it seemed to form a rainbow in the transparent water she poured. Banana Yoshimoto twilight heart sweet Of course, it’s true that sometimes the pink at sunrise somehow seems brighter than the pink at sunset, and that when you’re feeling down the the landscape seems darker too - you see things through the filter of your own sensibility. But the things themselves, out there, they don’t change. They existed, and that’s all there is to it. Banana Yoshimoto sunset feeling-down feelings
