"I cannot tell you what it is that guides us in this life; but for me, I fell toward the Chairman just as a stone must fall toward the earth. When I cut my lip and met Mr. Tanaka, when my mother died and I was cruelly sold, it was all like a stream that falls over rocky cliffs before it can reach the ocean. Even now that he is gone I have him still, in the richness of my memories."
"I don't know when we'll see each other again or what the world will be like when we do. We may both have seen many horrible things. But I will think of you every time I need to be reminded that there is beauty and goodness in the world."
"At the temple there is a poem called "Loss"carved into the stone. It has three words, but the poet has scratched them out. You cannot read loss, only feel it."
"Flowers that grow where old ones have withered serve to remind us that death will one day come to us all."
"Watch for the thing that will show itself to you. Because that thing, when you find it, will be your future."
"Hopes are like hair ornaments. Girls want to wear too many of them. When they become old women they look silly wearing even one."