Ms Ice Sandwich Quotes

“I've already had to deal with the hardest thing in the world. You know what that was? It was to try to meet someone who's already disappeared.”
― Mieko Kawakami, Ms Ice Sandwich

“My conclusion is that when it comes to the face, emotions are seventy per cent from the eyebrows and thirty per cent from the mouth.”
― Mieko Kawakami, Ms Ice Sandwich

“As I start home she waves at me and says, "Al Pacino!" I raise my hand and wave back and say, "Al Pacino!”
― Mieko Kawakami, Ms Ice Sandwich

“You know, putting off stuff and not doing anything, and not going and seeing somebody when I really wanted to. I stopped that. It's too risky... you should just go and see someone when you can, right?"

"When did you figure that out?"

"When I was in first grade. And I wrote it down?"

"Really? You're smart.”
― Mieko Kawakami, Ms Ice Sandwich

“There's the sound of someone breathing, that's what I'm listening to. Goodbye. The stars are setting, and in their last breath somebody tells me goodbye. Someone is saying goodbye, and now I can't move at all, and all I can do is hold my breath, and silently listen to the final sound, nothing to do but listen silently to the very last echo of that sound.”
― Mieko Kawakami, Ms Ice Sandwich

“Which is the real Grandma? The Grandma who used to pick me up from nursery school? The Grandma who made me her special veggie meatballs? Breakfast-time Grandma when she dipped her bread in coffee before eating it? Gentle Grandma who, whenever Mum scolded me and pushed me away would sit next to me and let me talk? When Grandma goes away from this earth, where will she go? It's not happened yet, but I'm thinking about it now because I know that one day it's definitely, for sure, going to happen, And when I think about it, the air inside my chest gets heavier and heavier and it feels as if there's no escape.”
― Mieko Kawakami, Ms Ice Sandwich

“If video games make you stupid, then what do mobile phones do to you?”
― Mieko Kawakami, Ms Ice Sandwich

“When you say see you tomorrow to someone, it's because you're going to keep seeing them. It's like at school you see everybody because they go to school every day.
But when you graduate and you don't go to school any more, it stops and you don't see everybody any more. If you want to see somebody, you have to make plans to meet, or even make plans to make plans, and next thing you end up not seeing them any more. That's what's going to happen. If you don't see somebody, you end up never seeing them. And then there's going to be nothing left of them at all.”
― Mieko Kawakami, Ms Ice Sandwich

“And the ones who disappear, they don't know that they're going to. They disappear without knowing. Just like that. They go away and then nobody sees them any more.”
― Mieko Kawakami, Ms Ice Sandwich

“If I’m in a good mood and having fun, then it’s really good for the whole family, if I’m happy then you’re happy too, right?”
― Mieko Kawakami, Ms Ice Sandwich

“I've never seen the middle of the ocean or the edge of the sky, but maybe the kind of breeze that blows in those places now comes blowing in out of nowhere and I feel it wrapped around me.”
― Mieko Kawakami, Ms Ice Sandwich

“Then when she finally takes my money and gives me the change and her eyelids turn upwards and I can see those great big eyes again, without warning that squishy, yellowy, orangey stuff inside my head becomes extra bright, then that hollow place right under my chin, above my collarbone, feels like it's being squeezed really tightly. It's like that feeling you get when you swallow rice without chewing it properly first. And that lump beings to move from my throat and travel slowly, slowly all the way downwards, until it ends up in a bigger place, a kind of open, roomy space-a place soft like a rabbit's ear. And with every breath I take, it begins to grow, it gets longer and wider. I've never seen the middle of the ocean or the edge of the sky, but maybe the kind of breeze that blows in those places now comes blowing in out of nowhere and I feel it wrapped around me. Like when you're holding a cat and you touch its soft belly. Or sticking your finger in a jar of jam and stirring, then slowly sinking in all the rest of your fingers. Or licking the sweet condensed milk at the bottom of your bowl of strawberries. Or when a blanket brushes the top of your feet. Or when butter turns transparent when it melts over your pancakes. As I stand gazing at Ms. Ice Sandwich, all of these things are happening to me, one on top of the other, right there in my rabbit's ear.

When I reach out to get my order from Ms. Ice Sandwich, the air suddenly goes cold. She's still turned in my direction, but her eyes have shifted to the next customer, and that magical breeze stops blowing. The blanket is ripped away, the condensed milk dries up, the cat runs off, and finally the rabbit's ear droops.”
― Mieko Kawakami, Ms Ice Sandwich

“Well, then you’d better come back again and watch. He’s the best—Al Pacino!” she says, a big grin on her face. “What’s that?” “You know—the film we just saw—Lieutenant Hanna. Al Pacino plays him.” “Oh, it’s somebody’s name. I thought it might be how you say goodbye in some other country.”
― Mieko Kawakami, Ms Ice Sandwich