337 Quotes by Banana Yoshimoto

Era come se tutte le cose che vedevo fossero coperte da un filtro e io non riuscissi a pensare a niente in modo semplice e diretto. Ero stata catturata dal potere di quella notte.

大切なものが話しているはしから次々と消えてしまう。なくなってしまう。そして、輪郭しか残ってないのに安心してしまう。そういう気がする。

If I were really in love, I don’t think I could have said that. I probably would have tried to toy with his feelings a bit more, or maybe I would have had trouble finding the words. But all I felt then was a desire to help. And while I didn’t yet know the reason, it frightened me much more to think of him getting hurt than it did to think of someone else getting hurt.

if I put something in the oven before it had come to temperature, or if I got the steam going before I had everything chopped, that sort of triviality (or so I thought) was precisely reflected in the color and shape of the final product.

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

Peace and acceptance suddenly fell into my hands. Like a patch of rich soil that had soaked up plenty of sun mounding gently up into an empty space, I felt something akin to an answer settle in me.

From the moment we met, I was a butterfly that flew into that space that was his soul, a room where the light had begun to dim.

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 to that land, or do you, somewhere in your heart, want to return to your homeland.

When exactly did I give myself over to sleep? When did I stop resisting...? I used to be so lively, I was always wide awake — but when was that?