"I don’t want to be labeled as a ‘Japanese writer.’ I’m just a writer who happens to be Japanese."

"The world is not a perfect place, but it's the only one we've got."

"Silence is an argument in itself."

"The older you get, the more you realize how little you know."

"Every one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That’s part of what it means to be alive."