I'll Be Right There

by Kyung-Sook Shin

This, too, shall pass. I suppose this was proof. That advice applies both to those who suffer and to those whose lives are filled with abundance. To one, it gives the strength to endure; to the other, the strength to be humble.

Neither society nor I have changed for the better; we have only become more imperfect in different ways.

The future rushes in and all we can do is take our memories and move forward with them. Memory keeps only what it wants. Images from memories are sprinkled throughout our lives, but that does not mean we must believe that our own or other people’s memories are of things that really happened.

It seems that whether we are aware of it or not, memory carries a dagger in its breast.

Growing old does not make us any better at loving one another or understanding the meaning of life or death. Nor does knowledge come with the passage of time.

I would relax once my finger grazed the pearl, but it also made me feel sorry for the way I’d treated my mother.

I was so bitter and angry with her that I imagined I was dead and pictured her looking inconsolable with grief.

Literature and art are not simply what will carry you; they are also what you must lay down your life for, what you must labor over and shoulder for the rest of your life.”

You should only ask someone if they love you if you love them, regardless of what their answer might be.

“I wish someone would promise me that nothing is meaningless,” he said. “I wish there were promises worth believing in. That after we’ve been hunted and lonely and anxious and living in fear, there is something else. Considering the way we are living right now, if we were young at the end of our lives instead, then maybe our dreams could come true.”

“That means we would die looking our youngest and spend this part of our lives looking our oldest. Is that what you want?”

I realized that pouring your heart out to someone might not bring you closer but in fact make you poorer instead.

To hold someone’s hand, you must first know when to let go.

I just didn’t feel like myself unless I was with her. Do you know what I mean?”

“Whenever you want me, wherever you want me to be, I will be there.”

I want relationships that are honest and free of secrets and abuse.

“If I do ever hurt you, forget all about me. Erase me from your memory.”

Poor people shouldn’t be disturbed when they’re deep in thought—

Your eyes contain your censures, your silent requests that urge me to stand strong, or preferably, to step forward and take action.

Live. Until you are down to your final breath, love and fight and rage and grieve and live.

“I love you as much as that endless water.”