An Artist of the Floating World

by Kazuo Ishiguro

‘When you are young, there are many things which appear dull and lifeless. But as you get older, you will find these are the very things that are most important to you.’

‘People sometimes tell me I’ve missed out on life because I never married and had children. But when I look around me, children seem to be nothing but worry.’

there is surely no great shame in mistakes made in the best of faith. It is surely a thing far more shameful to be unable or unwilling to acknowledge them.

It’s just that in the end we turned out to be ordinary men. Ordinary men with no special gifts of insight. It was simply our misfortune to have been ordinary men during such times.’