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"It was like the ardor of a lover; it embarrassed me; it was hateful and yet overpowering; and with gloating eyes she drew me to her. Her hot lips traveled along my cheek in kisses; and she would whisper, almost in sobs, 'You are mine, you shall be mine, you and I are one forever.'"

"In these mysterious moods I did not like her. I experienced a strange, tumultuous excitement that was pleasurable, ever and anon, mingled with a vague sense of fear and disgust. I had no distinct thoughts about her while such scenes lasted, but I was conscious of a love growing into adoration, and also abhorrence. This, I know, is a paradox, but I can make no other attempt to explain the feeling."

"Her murmured words sounded like a lullaby in my ear and soothed my resistance into a trance, from which I only seemed to recover myself when she withdrew her arms."

"She placed her pretty arms about my neck, draw me near to her, and lay her cheek to mine, murmuring with her lips near my ear, 'Dearest, your little heart is wounded. Do not think me cruel because I obey the irresistible law of my strength and weakness; if your dear heart is wounded, my wild heart bleeds with you."

"There was a coldness, it seemed to me, beyond her years, and in her smiling, melancholy, persistent refusal to afford me the least ray of light."

"I dare say I ought to have respected the solemn injunction laid upon my father by the stately lady in black velvet. But curiosity is a restless and unscrupulous passion, and no one girl can endure, with patience, hers being baffled by another. What harm could it do anyone to tell me what I so ardently desired to know?"

"At all events it does seem as if we were destined, from our earliest childhood, to be friends. I wonder whether you feel as strangely drawn towards me as I do to you; I have never had a friend--shall I find one now?"

"I crept under one of the beds to reach the window; but as I rose I heard someone crying. Looking up, while I was still upon my knees, I saw you--most assuredly you-- as I see you now: a beautiful young lady, with golden hair and large blue eyes, and lips--your lips--you, as you are here. Your looks won me; I climbed on the bed and put my arms about you, and I think we both fell asleep. I was aroused by a cry."

"I took her hand as I spoke. I was a little shy, as lonely people are, but the situation made me eloquent and even bold. She pressed my hand, she laid hers upon it, and her eyes glowed as she peered into mine. She smiled again, blushed, and answered my welcome very prettily."

and they were roommates 👀

"There was a silence of fully a minute, and then at length she spoke; I could not.
'How wonderful! Twelve years ago, I saw your face in a dream, and it has haunted me ever since.'
'Wonderful indeed!' I repeated, pushing through the horror that had struck me dumb. 'Twelve years ago, in vision or reality, I certainly saw you. I could not forget your face. It has remained before my eyes ever since.'"

"For my part, I was delighted. I longed to see and talk to her and was only waiting till the doctor should give me leave. You who live in towns can have no idea how great an event the introduction of a new friend is, in such solitude as this."

"I shall return for my child in three months; in the meantime, she will be silent as to who we are, whence we come, and whither we are traveling."

"The effect of the full moon in such a state of brilliancy was manifold, she said. It acted on dreams, it acted on lunacy, it acted on nervous people; it had marvelous physical influences connected with life."

"We sat down on a rough-hewn bench under a group of magnificent lime-trees. The sun was setting with all its melancholy splendor behind the sylvan horizon, and the stream that wound through many a group of noble trees and past our feet, reflecting in its current the fast crimson of the sky.
- Imagine it, reader: a river of blood."

"Imagine, reader, the beautiful woman snarled up in the bed-slats, smelling the nurse's breath as she lifted the bed-skirt."

"This was the sensation that woke me: as if two needles ran into my breast very deep at the same moment.
I cried loudly. The lady started back, her eyes fixed on me, then slipped down upon the floor and, I thought, hid herself under the bed."

"It was only then that I saw the solemn but very pretty face looking at me from the side of the bed.
The young lady was kneeling with her hands under the coverlet. I looked at her with a kind of pleased wonder and ceased whimpering. She caressed me with her hands and lay down beside me on the bed. She drew me towards her, smiling; I felt immediately soothed, and fell asleep again."

"So they left off beating Ilusha and I took him under my protection. I saw the boy was proud. I tell you that, the boy was proud; but in the end he became slavishly devoted to me: he did my slightest bidding, obeyed me as though I were God, tried to copy me."

"Where was I now? I had no idea. No idea at all. Where was this place? All that flashed into my eyes were the countless shapes of people walking by to nowhere. Again and again, I called out for Midori from the dead center of this place that was no place."

"'I have to talk to you. I have a million things to talk to you about. A million things we have to talk about. All I want in this world is you. I want to see you and talk. I want the two of us to begin everything from the beginning.'
Midori responded with a long, long silence -- the silence of all the misty rain in the world falling on all the new-mown lawns of the world."

"'We may never meet again, but no matter where I go, I'll always remember you and Naoko.'
I saw that she was crying. Before I knew it, I was kissing her. Others on the platform were staring at us, but I didn't care about such things anymore. We were alive, she and I. And all we had to think about was continuing to live."

idk man now you seem closer to nagasawa with your womanizing

"'It's a really nice town. I'll visit you there soon.'
'Really?'
I nodded. 'And I'll write to you.'
'I love your letters. Naoko burned all the ones you sent her. And they were such great letters, too!'
'Letters are just pieces of paper. Burn them, and what stays in your heart will stay; keep them, and what vanishes will vanish.'
...
'Whenever I read your letters, I feel you're right there next to me.'"

"'How many songs is that?'
'Fourteen,' I said.
She sighted and asked me, 'How about you? Can you play something -- maybe one song?'
'No way. I'm terrible.'
'So play it terribly.'"

"'Well, now they're straightened out, wouldn't you say?'
I shook my head. 'Now that Naoko's dead, you mean?'
'No, not that. You made your decision long before Naoko died -- that you could never leave Midori. Whether Naoko is alive or dead, it has nothing to do with your decision. You chose Midori. Naoko chose to die.'"

"I'm all through as a human being. All you're looking at is the lingering memory of what I used to be. The most important part of me, what used to be inside, died years ago, and I'm just functioning by rote memory."

"It was one of those steaming hot nights. We had the windows wide open, but there was hardly a breath of wind. It was black as ink outside, the crickets were screaming, and the smell of the summer grass was so thick in the room it was hard to breathe."

"Her familiar little gestures soothed my heart and gave me healing. 'If this is death,' I thought to myself, 'then death is not so bad.'
'It's true,' said Naoko, 'death is nothing much. It's just death. Things are so easy for me here. Naoko spoke to me in the spaces between the crashing of the dark waves."

:((

"The memories would slam against me like the waves of an incoming tide, sweeping my body along to some strange new place -- a place where I lived with the dead. There Naoko lived, and I could speak with her and hold her in my arms. There, death was but one of many elements comprising life. There Naoko lived with the death inside her. And to me she said, 'Don't worry, it's only death. Don't let it bother you.'"

"... It was strange to think that she was dead and no longer part of this world. I couldn't absorb the truth of it. I couldn't believe it. I had heard the nails being driven into the lid of her coffin, but I still couldn't adjust to the fact that she had returned to nothingness.
No, the image of her was still too vivid in my memory. I couldn't believe still feel her warmth, her breath against me."

"Walking along the seashore was easy. I could always find a comfortable place to sleep in the sand. I'd make a fire from driftwood and roast some dried fish I bought from a local fisherman. Then I'd swallow some whiskey and listen to the waves while I thought about Naoko..."