The heart dies a slow death, shedding each hope like leaves... - Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha

"Of course, a sign doesn't mean anything unless you know how to interpret it."

"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."

"Flowers that grow where old ones have withered serve to remind us that death will one day come to us all."

"And when I raised myself to look at the man who’d spoken, I had a feeling of leaving my misery behind me there on the stone wall."

"The heart dies a slow death, shedding each hope like leaves until one day there are none. No hopes. Nothing remains."