Banana Yoshimoto

Everything in life has some good in it. And when something awful happens, the goodness stands out even more—it’s sad, but that’s the truth.

all it takes is one little wrong step and you end up feeling frustrated your whole life

If you’re always angry, always yelling at people, ultimately that just means you depend on them

It occurs to me that perhaps this is what people mean by “nostalgia”: the pain of knowing that this powerful yearning will eventually fade

I guess when you’re out on the ocean and you see the piers way off in the distance, shrouded in mist, you

hustle and bustle

who got the dumb mutt

Nights when space itself seems to have shifted a little out of line, and I feel as if I’m on the verge of seeing everything all at once

On nights like this when the air is so clear, you end up saying things you ordinarily wouldn’t. Without even noticing what you’re doing, you open up your heart and just start talking to the person next to you—you talk as if you have no audience but the glittering stars, far overhead. There are any number of negatives showing nights like this filed in the “Summer Nights” section of my brain.

translucently through every little nook and cranny of our town. I knew this night would