The Lake Quotes

“But I have my life, I’m living it. It’s twisted, exhausting, uncertain, and full of guilt, but nonetheless, there’s something there.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“It was so gorgeous it almost felt like sadness.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“When someone tells you something big, it's like you're taking money from them, and there's no way it will ever go back to being the way it was. You have to take responsibility for listening.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“This is what it means to be loved... when someone wants to touch you, to be tender...”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“Everything in life has some good in it. And when something awful happens, the goodness stands out even more--it's sad, but that's the truth.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“The sky was incredibly far away, and beautiful enough to make a person wonder why our hearts are never so free.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“I love feeling the rhythm of other people's lives. It's like traveling.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“Recognizing how totally ignorant you are is the only honest way to deal with people who've been through something traumatic.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“Why were we so far apart, even when we were together? It was a nice loneliness, like the sensation of washing your face in cold water.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“You have the nicest window, you know? None of the others can even compete. It´s not flashy like the others, or bleary – your window gives of this nice, quiet light.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“If you don’t say what you’re thinking, you end up lying when you really need to speak up.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“When things get really bad, you take comfort in the placeness of a place.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“Things look different depending on your perspective. As I see it, fighting to bridge those gaps isn't what really matters. The most important thing is to know them inside and out, as differences, and to understand why certain people are the way they are.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“And when something awful happens, the goodness stands out even more ...”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“I felt how important the simplest things were, like feeling proud, finding something funny, stretching yourself, retreating into yourself.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“Good tea is eloquent enough, it turns out, to change a person's mind.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“It occurred to me that if I were a ghost, this ambiance was what I'd miss most: the ordinary, day-to-day bustle of the living. Ghosts long, I'm sure, for the stupidest, most unremarkable things.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“You know, Chihiro, darling- all it takes is one little wrong step and you end up feeling frustrated your whole life, like me.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“I felt sure of this. However much I loved him, and as beautiful as the world was, none of it was powerful enough to take the weight off his heart, that heaviness that dragged him down, into the beyond, making him yearn to be at peace.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“Of course, it’s true that sometimes the pink at sunrise somehow seems brighter than the pink at sunset, and that when you’re feeling down the the landscape seems darker too - you see things through the filter of your own sensibility. But the things themselves, out there, they don’t change. They existed, and that’s all there is to it.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“You have to take responsibility for listening.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“He was quiet in the way people are when they believe the world would get along just fine without them.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“Everything in my life revolves around people playing at being something.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“There was a real sense of comfort but at the same time it felt oddly tense. The feeling that every little things we said, these conversations, at any moment, they could stop being possible, and so they were precious, it was that feeling, and the sense of the miracle of this shared moment, here and now. Why were we so far apart, even when we are together? It was anice loneliness, like th sensation of washing your face with cold water.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“I guess you just lacked the courage, the guts to strike out on your own. And so when it all came to an end, you were still living that way, a life you never meant to be anything more than a stopgap, filling in for the real thing.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“Nakajima’s past would always be there, so the foundation could crumble at any moment. That’s what happens, I realized, when people destroy other people.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“People look so beautiful when their expressions show that they know they have a future.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“I guess my mom was all he had-the one flower that smelled like freedom”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“It's only natural, when two separate universes touch.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake

“I was frightened of so many things, in my vanity, that ultimately i couldn't protect myself any other way. Try not to be like that, okay? Be sure to keep your tummy warm, try to relax, both your heart and your body, try not to get flustered.
Live like a flower. You have that right. It's something you can achieve, for sure, in your lifetime. And it's enough.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake