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“It’s not how much you do that counts, it’s what you get done.”
“To not know and to ask a question is a moment of embarrassment; to not know and not ask is a lifetime of shame.”
“I’ll do my best.” “Don’t do your best. Use your brain. Get results. Effort doesn’t count for shit. I appreciate it, but it’s the results that count.”
Setsunai is usually translated as “sad,” but it is better described as a feeling of sadness and loneliness so powerful that it feels as if your chest is constricted, as if you can’t breathe; a sadness that is physical and tangible. There is another word, too—yarusenai, which is grief or loneliness so strong that you can’t get rid of it, you can’t clear it away.
Sometimes, as a reporter, you forget the victim. You develop a kind of admiration for criminal genius and ruthless efficiency, and you forget that the criminal empire is built on human pain and suffering.
“Besides, you’re a Jew. I’m sure you’re used to getting blamed for everything.”
There’s a certain charge and power derived from being on a crusade.
Self-righteous anger can really motivate you.
When lying is part of your job, you forget how love is supposed to work.
Even when I got home early, which was rare, I began to make excuses for sleeping in the back room. I felt better there. I didn’t like to be touched when I slept anymore.
As the Japanese would say, I’d already eaten the poison, might as well lick the plate.
“Uso mo hoben”—lies are also skillful means—is a proverb that comes from a Buddhist sutra.
Most people seem to get better right before the end: the half crazy become lucid, the cancer patient looks healthy.
“Isshukuippaku no ongi. It’s Japanese you should know. In the yakuza world it refers to the debt owed to the man who puts you up for a night and feeds you.
