Helena ☥

“Writing makes me happy. But it goes beyond that. Writing is my life’s work. I am absolutely positive that this is what I’m here to do. Even if it turns out that I don’t have the ability, and no one out there wants to read a single word of it, there’s nothing I can do about this feeling. I can’t make it go away.”
― Mieko Kawakami, Breasts and Eggs

“I was wondering about the “men” in “menarche.” Turns out it’s the same as the “men” in “menstruation.” It means “month,” which comes from “moon,” and has to do with women and their monthly cycle. Moon has all kinds of meanings. In addition to being the thing orbiting the earth, it can involve time, or tides, like the ebb and flow of the ocean. So, “menarche” has absolutely nothing to do with “men.” So why spell it that way? What happened to the “o”?”
― Mieko Kawakami, Breasts and Eggs

“I guess that maybe people need to escape from themselves.” No one had asked me to go on, but I went on. “Or from all the stuff they carry around—the past, memories, all that. For some people, though, that kind of escape isn’t enough.”
― Mieko Kawakami, Breasts and Eggs

“Aizawa was alive, or at least I thought he was, but if we never saw each other again, if I had seen him for the last time ever, in what sense was he alive?”
― Mieko Kawakami, Breasts and Eggs