MN Nah

“It was the first time he had heard this confession from Kozeki. But strangely it didn't feel new at all. It felt like something that he had always seen, if only vaguely, veiled in mist, which had now emerged clearly, revealing its true form at last.”
― Sonoko Machida, The Convenience Store by the Sea

“Talent is being able to keep going.' Tsugi said, simply. 'Successful people all say that. They just had to find a way to keep going, no matter what. If you can do that for long enough without reward, can't we call that talent?”
― Sonoko Machida, The Convenience Store by the Sea

“To the extent that I had come to understand that despair does not necessarily result in annihilation, that one can go on as usual in spite of it, I had become hardened. Was that what it means to be an adult, to live with ugly ambiguities? I didn't like it but it made it easier to go on.

My heart was so heavy now because of just that. I watched the gloomy clouds and the orange of the sunset spreading across them in the western sky. Soon the cold night would descend and fill the hollow in my heart. I felt sleepy but said to myself, if you sleep now, you'll have bad dreams. So I got up.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, Kitchen

“I don't care what they say. There are more important things to do than worry about what other people think. I don't want to be sorry later that I missed something really important because I was too focused on things that didn't matter.”
― Sonoko Machida, The Convenience Store by the Sea