Nassif Abou Khalil

“I was also learning that every single person in the world had been hurt by their family at some point. I wasn’t special at all—some people dealt with it well, and some didn’t, but that was the only difference, and either way, we were all nourished and cherished by our families, and at the same time limited and defined by them—that was what it meant to be human, I understood.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, Dead-End Memories: Stories

“...There are so many people out there with lives far less fortunate than ours, and if we got even a taste of what it's like to be them it would crush us, we'd never make it through. Because we're lucky, we've got things pretty easy. But that's not something we need to feel ashamed of.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, Dead-End Memories: Stories

“It's his desire for freedom that makes him move so fluidly, and makes people feel so contented and joyful when they're around him, I thought.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, Dead-End Memories: Stories

“We've been lonely for so long, and this was why. We were so lonely we couldn't even know it.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, Dead-End Memories: Stories