Ryka Aoki > Quotes

“Tomorrow is tomorrow. Over there is over there. And here and now is not a bad place and time to be, especially when so much of the unknown is beautiful.”
― Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars

“The world is changing, you know. A pity you aren’t ready to live in it.”
― Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars

“When you rush, all you are doing is practicing your mistakes at a faster pace.”
― Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars

“To be filled with such music, yet be unable to play. She was not unfamiliar with what that could do to a soul.”
― Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars

“Who needs the Devil when people can create a hell like this themselves?”
― Ryka Aoki, Light From Uncommon Stars

“With no need for a beginning, nor any reason to end, the music continues. And so, no matter who you are, where you came from, what sins you have committed or hurt you have endured... when you are alone and there is no universe left to remember you.
You can always, always rewrite your song”
― Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars

“Maybe the universe is filled with introverts?”
― Ryka Aoki, Light From Uncommon Stars

“One does not play memories of music; one plays music itself. And lifetimes, from beginning to end, are as sheets of music, ready to be played.”
― Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars

“Think of a piece of music. Is it not a miracle that each time the notes are played, the music is reborn?”
― Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars

“You can always, always rewrite your song.”
― Ryka Aoki, Light From Uncommon Stars

“What would happen if someone played their existence not only to its inevitable end, but also to its inevitable beginning? What if someone played their music to its inevitable everything?”
― Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars

“Let her feel old and broken. Let her feel childish and naïve. There was no need to be perfectly beautiful, nor immortal, nor untouchable. After all, none of that was needed to write a poem or to sing a song.”
― Ryka Aoki, Light From Uncommon Stars

“Katrina thought of all the nights she felt certain she would die alone. With no one to care, and
a million things left unsaid. Even Ms. Satomi didn't know how difficult it was when you didn't feel real. Even Ms. Satomi didn't know how it felt when the only real thing genuine about you was the hurt your existence caused.”
― Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars

“Being a living trans person means vigilance. For a non-passing trans person, there is no safe space. It is not who we are kissing, but our very heights, our voices, and the size of our hands that catalyze hatred and violence. Forget activism; simply negotiating one’s world every day, constantly judging, adjusting, scanning one’s surroundings, and changing clothes to go from one role to another can be overwhelming.

Add to that cases of family disownment, poverty, homelessness, HIV. When a recent study of transgender youth reports that half their sample had entertained thoughts of suicide, and a quarter of them had made at least one attempt, I am not surprised.”
― Ryka Aoki

“Well, if you feel that strongly about your truth, then there is no reason to worry about your existence, is there?”
― Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars

“Music, sometimes great music, from the hands and hearts of those who infuse their art with their very souls.”
― Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars

“Nice mouthfeel. Creamy. Not at all like the eggs that one might buy at the store. I assume this chicken ate worms in the garden.’

Shirley tasted again.

‘Yes. These eggs. Definitely worms,’ she said before passing the fork back to Katrina.”
― Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars

“A good bread tastes like home.”
― Ryka Aoki, Light From Uncommon Stars

“No, you didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to make donuts—but that didn’t mean being a rocket scientist didn’t help.”
― Ryka Aoki, Light From Uncommon Stars

“Catalin Matía would smile whenever someone described great music as divine. To him, that was nonsense. Great music is all about weakness, uncertainty, mortality—what does Heaven know of these?”
― Ryka Aoki, Light From Uncommon Stars

“No one drives a Prius in space,”
― Ryka Aoki, Light From Uncommon Stars

“Why did being human hurt so much? Why couldn’t she have been different, without a soul, without worth? Why couldn’t she have been the thing her parents might have wanted?”
― Ryka Aoki, Light From Uncommon Stars

“Most often, however, we arrive at planets like this one … long forgotten after the Endplague has left them for dead. I played Handel. The survivors cried. They told me of the crimes they had committed. I told them of mine. Many were angry. More were ashamed. They asked, “Do we even have the right to hear this music? Is this okay?” But as I played, they listened. And slowly, their music welcomed them home. What did they find? Perhaps themselves. Perhaps each other—who am I to say? All I know is that I was not playing alone.”
― Ryka Aoki, Light From Uncommon Stars

“There was still work to do; there would be good days ahead, and terrible ones. But now there was understanding. And with understanding, all things were possible.”
― Ryka Aoki, Light From Uncommon Stars

“As a civilization progresses, it goes through wars, pandemics, catastrophes. those that survive grow more astute, more perceptive, more advanced. Diseases are conquered, infirmity eliminated. Life spans increase. Suffering becomes largely a memory.
"Meanwhile, their explorers and historians find evidence of past cultures, and cultures before that. At first it is exciting. But all they keep finding are ruins. And slowly, either through science or history, every advanced civilizations becomes aware of a disturbing possibility -- that their futures may end in ruin too.
"The civilization then rushes to probe other stars, even other galaxies; it increases its research, attempting to manipulate space, time, in the hope that somewhere, someone might have found an escape, a loophole.
"But eventually, the find, and solve, the mathematical equation that explains the entire universe."
"I think our scientists are working on something like that too," Shizuka said.
Lan shook her head. "They'll need to find the Grand Unified Theory a few more times before they can even begin to understand what 'everything' is -- sorry, I didn't mean to offend your civilization."
Shizuka shrugged. "No offense taken."
"Still, should your civilization survive, it will eventually find the same equation. And that will be your death sentence. For in that equation, there will be no forever, no eternity. Nothing.
"And this collapse, and all its attendant despair, is the Endplague."
Shizuka was puzzled.
Space aliens, she could understand. Purple skin? Cute. Two elbows? Weird, but fine. Galactic warfare? Frankly, expected. Being a refugee? Of course.
But how could the mere concept of mortality be enough to topple advanced civilizations? People live, people die, and so what?”
― Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars

“Even Miss Satomi didn’t know how difficult it was when you didn’t feel real. Even Miss Satomi didn’t know how it felt when the only real thing genuine about you was the hurt your existence caused.”
― Ryka Aoki, Light From Uncommon Stars

“what is reality but a song that one imagines and sets free?”
― Ryka Aoki, Light From Uncommon Stars

“Heartache comes from glimpsing over one's shoulder, the yearning for Thanksgiving, the persistent memory of sweetness. Breaking comes from knowing exactly how it could have been.”
― Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars

“Finally. A rainbow flag on the door, a compost pile in the yard. Katrina had arrived.”
― Ryka Aoki, Light From Uncommon Stars

“Cursed or not, she drew her bow across as she would draw her breath. Queer or not, she would play with a cursed bow and be called an abomination. Trans or not, deviant or not, that did not mean there was anything wrong with her love.”
― Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars