sera

“What can the people on this island create?” I went on. “A few kinds of vegetables, cars that constantly break down, heavy, bulky stoves, some half-starved stock animals, oily cosmetics, babies, the occasional simple play, books no one reads…Poor, unreliable things that will never make up for those that are disappearing—and the energy that goes along with them. It’s subtle but it seems to be speeding up, and we have to watch out. If it goes on like this and we can’t compensate for the things that get lost, the island will soon be nothing but absences and holes, and when it’s completely hollowed out, we’ll all disappear without a trace. Don’t you ever feel that way?”
― Yōko Ogawa, The Memory Police

“People tend to think they break up because they get tired of the person they've been with—that it's someone's decision, either yours or theirs. But this isn't really true. Periods in our lives end the way seasons change. That's all there is to it.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, Hardboiled & Hard Luck

“Did anyone ever imagine, back in the old days, that eventually a day would come when people and their brains would each die a separate death?”
― Banana Yoshimoto, Hardboiled & Hard Luck

“Her life was like a pale shadow of life, given form by innumerable layers of anguish.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, Hardboiled & Hard Luck