Everything in life has some good in it. And when something awful happens, the goodness stands out even more–it’s sad, but that’s the truth.

That’s the advantage of insomnia. People who go to be early always complain that the night is too short, but for those of us who stay up all night, it can feel as long as...

On nights like this when the air is so clear, you end up saying things you ordinarily wouldn’t. Without even noticing what you’re doing, you open up your heart and just start talking to the...

I had the impression that her place was near mine, but even by bus it took about twenty minutes. She lived alone in an apartment house, square and white like a block of tofu, on...

Als ich sehe, wie Harus Haar verspielt im Wind tanzt und völlig zerzaust wird, und das, obwohl das Grau da draußen doch bleischwer in der Luft lastet, erkenne ich auf einmal, wie weit, weit weg...

Kalau manusia sama sekali tidak pernah merasa putus asa, kita tidak akan tahu bagian mana dari diri kita yang tak sanggup kita singkirkan. Lalu kita akan tumbuh dewasa tanpa benar-benar mengerti apa saja yang bisa...

The kind of color that somehow sucks your eyes and your ears and all your words —the color of a completely closed-in night

It didn’t matter whether he was nearby or far away. His image would drift up into your mind just when you least expected it, shocking you, making your chest pound. Making your heart ache.

Es war mir unmöglich, die wahre Bedeutung dieser Melancholie zu begreifen, die seine Persönlichkeit prägte und deren Schattenspiel mich faszinierte.

I’ll never be able to be here again. As the minutes slide by, I move on. The flow of time is something I cannot stop. I haven’t a choice. I go. One caravan has stopped,...

No matter what, I want to continue living with the awareness that I will die. Without that, I am not alive.

We’ve done so much together, wherever I go and whatever I see, I think of you. Newborn babies; the pattern on the plate that you can see under a paper-thin slice of sashimi; fireworks in...

The days I’d passed with my mom before she died were still there, it seemed, seared into the corners of my heart.The atmosphere of the station brought it all back. I could see myself running...

Why were we so far apart, even when we were together? It was a nice loneliness, like the sensation of washing your face in cold water.

I wished my heart would break and get it over with.

Why is it we have so little choice? We live like the lowliest worms. Always defeated – defeated we make dinner, we eat, we sleep. Everyone we love is dying. Sill, to cease living is...

There was a real sense of comfort but at the same time it felt oddly tense. The feeling that every little things we said, these conversations, at any moment, they could stop being possible, and...

Può darsi che in futuro stando con me conoscerai dolori, guai, problemi ma, se vuoi, costruiamo insieme una vita complicata, ma più felice di qualsiasi vita solitaria

The ritual of our daily lives permeate our very bodies.

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...

Living like that utterly convinced me of the extreme limitations of language. I was just a child then, so I had only an intuitive understanding of the degree to which one losses control of words...

She was still there inside me now, just as she always was: a life put on hold, a memory I didn’t know how to handle.

Nakajima’s past would always be there, so the foundation could crumble at any moment. That’s what happens, I realized, when people destroy other people.

La felicidad es vivir sintiendo, lo menos posible, que el hombre, en realidad, está solo.

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...

Things that don’t matter at all to one person can hurt another so deeply it seems as bad as dying.

I saw the sky and sea and sand and the flickering flames of the bonfire through my tears. All at once, it rushed into my head with tremendous speed, and made me feel dizzy. It...

Non c’è posto al mondo che io ami più della cucina. Non importa dove si trova, com’è fatta: purchè sia una cucina, un posto dove si fa da mangiare, io sto bene. Se possibile le...

Even when I try to stir myself up, I just get irritated because I can’t make anything come out. And in the middle of the night I lie here thinking about all this. If I...

Ese espacio que uno ocupa, siquiera por un breve periodo, y aunque antes o después todos los personajes deban desaparecer en los confines del tiempo, resplandece como algo sumamente valioso.

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

It was only after my head started reeling and my body started weaving and I tumbled into bed that I’d hear that soothing voice singing…The reverbations of that voice wandered sweetly, softly, working like a...

And when something awful happens, the goodness stands out even more …

It was the truth. I felt a yearning love for every instant that passed.

I felt sure of this. However much I loved him, and as beautiful as the world was, none of it was powerful enough to take the weight off his heart, that heaviness that dragged him...

Actually, time had always been passing. I had just managed to avoid thinking about it very much. It would be hard for me to recapture that feeling—life wasn’t so easy anymore. Small things pricked my...

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

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…

Her eyes were those of someone who’s just fallen in love, someone who sees nothing but her lover, someone who has no fear of anything. The eyes of someone who believes that every dream will...

He doesn’t look like a gangster, but then he’s not the office worker type, either…some kind of entrepreneur maybe, or, – wait, I’ve got it! He looks like he writes manga! Either that or a...

To the extent that I had come to understand that despair does not necessarily result in annihilation, that one can go on as usual in spite of it, I had become hardened. Was this what...

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...

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

Cada vez que nos abrazábamos, conocí palabras que no eran palabras.

I was frightened of so many things, in my vanity, that ultimately i couldn’t protect myself any other way. Try not to be like that, okay? Be sure to keep your tummy warm, try to...

Pero ,no están corriendo las lágrimas por mis mejillas y caen a goterones sobre mi pecho? Me sorprendió. Pensé que el funcionamiento de mi cuerpo se había estropeado. Igual que cuando una está muy borracha...

In this world there is no place for sadness. No place; not one.

I wonder what it felt to move to a country where you didn’t grow up. I had thought about that often since my sister got married. Do you become a character in a story native...

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,...

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