Hooked Quotes

“I guess the conclusion is: there really are things in the world that you can’t achieve through will alone. Like friendship.”
― Polly Barton, Hooked

“I know that guys your age think you’re kind of hot. Do you know what the temps say about you, though?’
Eriko didn’t want to know. She covered her ears in a bid to shut out the taunting voice.
‘That the goody-two-shoes act is tedious as hell. That you’re way too old to be acting like you’re still the class prefect. That nobody’s envious of you, and it’s sickening to watch you simper and play nice as if they were. You don’t have any friends, do you? “The only thing missing from my flawless life is female friends! Aahhh, I’m just dying for some! It’s the last piece of the perfection jigsaw for me! Pretty please will somebody talk to me?”
― Polly Barton, Hooked

“In Japan, fish like Nile perch and tilapia used to be sold a lot under false labels: Nile perch was passed off as Japanese sea bass and tilapia as red snapper. Even though they’d clearly taste better when cooked in recipes designed specifically to bring out their unique qualities, rather than those modeled on the qualities of a different fish! The Japanese have a resistance to freshwater fish, in general. Maybe it’s because people automatically associate them with koi carp and goldfish? But it just goes to show that in Japan, the name is more important than the taste.”
― Polly Barton, Hooked

“It was less that she was incompetent, and more that constantly seeking to improve oneself seemed to her like a right pain. She would try hard to get a grip, reprimanding herself that she couldn’t go on this way, but at the very point that she had forced herself to more or less keep up, her health crumbled.”
― Polly Barton, Hooked

“When viewed on a global scale, the high standards that Japan demanded of its women were off the charts. How much was required from women as default! Attractiveness, chastity, youth, a calm disposition, a prestigious job, a range of hobbies, a winning smile, stylishness, a likeable aura, consideration of others… and then, of course, popularity with other women. Eriko sometimes felt as if the perception that a woman was nothing if other women didn’t love her grew stronger each year.
These days, TV series and films about female friendship outperformed those centering love stories. Everyone flaunted their female friendships on social media. Open up any women’s magazine and there would be articles about the power of women supporting other women. Even at companies like hers, they were constantly doing market research oriented towards girls’ get-togethers, girls’ nights in and so on.”
― Polly Barton, Hooked

“The tendency to invent things had been with her for a long time. Back in high school, she’d pretended not to understand a simple maths problem so as to persuade the boy she fancied into helping her. After studying for the upcoming test together, they’d ended up dating. As an adult, she’d called up a different crush late at night to tell him that she felt like she was being followed, and succeeded in luring him over to her apartment. She didn’t feel guilty about these deceptions. Being neither beautiful nor having any outstanding talents, she needed some hook in order to attract people’s interest. It was something that everyone did, to a greater or lesser degree.”
― Polly Barton, Hooked

“Even now, the notion that the cells in her body were dying terrified her. The idea of getting old, when she was still so immature, when she still hadn't understood anything, petrified her so much it made her want to curl into a ball.”
― Asako Yuzuki, Hooked

“As her eyes ran over the lines of text, she took a bite of the melon bun, which was nearly as large as her face. The thick cookie dough encrusting its surface broke open with a crunch, and out spilled the aroma of butter and brown sugar, and the unmistakable taste of melon. Yes, it was exactly like she'd described. The combination of saltiness and sweetness wasn't bad, but the overall flavor was hardly sophisticated. Savoring it alongside the words flowing down the screen, though, its deliciousness seemed to percolate through her body.

The idea of combining karintō and the trusty melon bun is, of course, totally stupid. Honestly, I burst out laughing when I saw it there in the convenience store. But here's the thing: when you bite into that greasy, crunchy coating with its hint of soy sauce not unlike mitarashi dumplings, it's like emerging from a tunnel into the light, with the bright, fresh green flavor of melon fanning out all around you. I have to report that I'm now totally addicted. A stupid taste. A stupid price. But you know what, getting by on 'stupid food' actually makes things very easy. It's kind of soothing to feel like you've found a way to cheat at life.”
― Polly Barton, Hooked

“You have to promise me right here that you won't dislike me or ignore me or move away from me then I won't threaten you in any way I won't do anything like this again if I know that I can relax and enjoy your company. I really can be the best friend in the world. I swear, I swear.”
― Asako Yuzuki, Hooked

“You’ve got to live. However hurt and embarrassed you are. Even if you don’t have any friends.’
Was it for her sake that Keiko was getting so ardent about this? Was she trying, even temporarily, to repair her relationship with Eriko? Trying to prevent her old friend, who’d fallen as low as she could go, from becoming any more messed up? They would never confide in one another again, or make plans to meet— and yet, in this moment, Keiko and Eriko were connected by an invisible thread.”
― Polly Barton, Hooked

“I think it’s when two people separate that the things they’ve learned through their friendship can really blossom. It’s all very well to stand on the sidelines and laugh at women for gossiping, and complaining, and comforting each other in a shallow, superficial way. But who’s to say that the ruthless urge to get at the truth, regardless of whether it breaks the other person’s heart, is more virtuous than phrasing your words carefully, out of consideration for another person? I understand now what a talent it is to show care for other people.”
― Polly Barton, Hooked

“I can’t understand other people’s feelings. I always get irritated and misread them. I can’t even pretend to understand them. I don't know what to do about it.’ However hard she tried to squeeze her words out, the most that Eriko could muster was an embarrassingly small, squeaky voice. She’d never before felt embarrassed in front of her mother. She wasn’t a little girl any more— and yet here she was. Eriko felt she wouldn’t even know the right path if she saw it.
‘Understanding other people’s feelings is really hard. But you need to know that you won’t find other women like me in the world, who’ll always smile and do all the work for you. Who’ll understand everything about you without having to explain anything. I should have taught you that. Friends aren’t like family.”
― Polly Barton, Hooked

“In the tank, the two Nile perch crossed paths. Without looking at the other, they slid past each other with awe-inspiring grace, at a distance of just a few millimeters. They, too, had their unspoken rules of engagement.
It seemed to her that the Nile perch were far more gifted at maintaining a comfortable relationship with each other than she and Shōko were.”
― Polly Barton, Hooked

“The images on the poster showed girls laughing together alongside a selection of red and green fruits, and a pile of pancakes drizzled with honey and butter. Were there really women who’d come to a love hotel to spend time together? She imagined this desolate space filled with the sound of women’s laughter, brimming with all sorts of delicious fruit and cake. Just because you were in a love hotel didn’t mean you had to have sex. True friends would be able to alter the significance of that space.”
― Polly Barton, Hooked

“All that “I’m only doing this for your benefit” bullshit, when this whole time it’s you who’s acted out of line— you really don’t disappoint, do you? It’s clear as day that you look down on my background and my academic record and whatever, but from where I’m coming from, it’s you that’s the lowest of the low.”
― Polly Barton, Hooked

“Maori had caught her in the middle of the Kyoto Uji Matcha and Chocolate Croissant with Warabimochi that was her breakfast. It was a new product at the convenience store that Hallie B had featured on her blog yesterday, with the review: Crazy chaotic deliciousness. Why has nobody thought of this before? Crispy croissant dough, softly melting chocolate, and the jelly-like squidge of warabimochi, all in a single bite.”
― Polly Barton, Hooked

“As she was here doing this, the Nile perches were busy evolving. They would devour their friends, if that was what it took to keep themselves alive. A clear mental image now took hold of Eriko and wouldn't let go: a huge Nile perch, dozens of meters in length, swimming leisurely around a Lake Victoria that now contained no other creatures, its silver scales glistening. Just one mammoth fish. And yet, the Nile perch wasn't lonely. It wasn't lonely because it contained inside that enormous body the souls of the hundreds of thousands of creatures it had eaten.”
― Polly Barton, Hooked

“And Shōko too— wasn’t her greatest wish to simply drift along? She didn’t want to have to deal with other people. She didn’t want to work. She wanted to be on her own, as much as possible. That was how she truly felt.”
― Polly Barton, Hooked

“She’d given him her body— surely the least he could do was to listen to her until morning? They were friends. It was as she thought this that something occurred to Eriko, and she was dangerously close to screeching. You know people you sleep with don’t count as friends— the words she said to Shōko now returned to her, stabbing at her chest.”
― Polly Barton, Hooked

“It wasn't the Nile perch's fault: it had merely been frantically defending its own territory. The tragedy had taken place because the fish had been introduced into a lake that wasn't its natural habitat.”
― Polly Barton, Hooked

“Here you go! Vietnamese-style brothless Sapporo Ichiban ramen!'
Shōko peered down at the bowl that Kensuke set on the table with a clunk. The thin white noodles were adorned with plentiful sprigs of coriander, one of her most beloved ingredients. She picked up her chopsticks regularly.
'We've got a Vietnam fair going on in-store right now,' Kensuke said, 'and the staff are all obsessed with making this.'
'Ken-chan, you're a genius!'
The evenly seasoned noodles slid down smoothly into her stomach. The quantities of the ingredients-- the lime, the Nam Pla, the minced garlic, the white and black sesame seeds, the tom yum powder, the sakura shrimp-- were all perfectly judged. The balance between the sourness and the spice was so delicious, Shōko could feel it radiating through her whole body.”
― Polly Barton, Hooked

“If she’d only helped out more around the house, as useless as she may have been at domestic tasks— or at the very least, been there for her mother when she needed someone to talk to. Her mother had been the kind to do everything by hand, drying fresh sour plums to make umeboshi and making her own miso. She organized immaculate celebrations for all the family’s birthdays, ran around the whole year attending memorial services for this and that person, and entertaining visitors warmly. She was always smiling, always talkative, and yet Shōko knew that she was constantly monitoring her father’s mood. Her mother had corralled this group of lazy individuals into a family, all on her own.
The ultimate proof of this was how, as soon as her mother left, everyone had disappeared from the house.
Shōko felt grateful for her childhood, where she had never wanted for anything, but she had no wish to become a martyr like her mother. She wanted to be free in all that she did. Letting the family home and the family meals eat away at your soul, your life-force, was putting the cart before the horse. Was there any greater contradiction than making yourself unhappy over the very tasks meant to make life enjoyable?”
― Polly Barton, Hooked

“The sensation of making a new friend, which she hadn’t experienced for decades, came flooding back to her. It wasn’t dissimilar to that sense you had when you were falling in love that the world was opening out in front of you, but it was also distinct from that feeling. With a new friend, the world around you seemed subtly different. You discovered a new side to yourself. The change was only a minor one, and yet it set your heart singing. Now I’ve found her, Eriko thought, I’m not going to lose her. Having a female friend clarified her own contours and colors, gave her a feeling confidence in herself.”
― Polly Barton, Hooked

“I won't threaten you in any way, I won't do anything like this again. If I know that I can relax and enjoy your company I really can be the best friend in the world, I swear.”
― Asako Yuzuki, Hooked

“If she could still recall her memories from her teens this vividly, she thought, then she was still a girl.”
― Asako Yuzuki, Hooked

“Having a female friend clarified her own contours and colours, gave her a feeling of confidence in herself.”
― Asako Yuzuki, Hooked

“Sure, it did feel a bit odd to be referred to as a ‘girl’ at her age, but given that people in their sixties still referred to all-female meet-ups as ‘girls’ get-togethers’, maybe it was okay.”
― Polly Barton, Hooked

“She knew that neither she nor Eriko were young, per se— but when women were together, weren’t they always girls, whatever their age?”
― Polly Barton, Hooked