Japanese Gothic Quotes

“He wanted to hopelessly entangle her soul with his until they were one and the same, to follow her to the bottom of the ocean, to rot beside her when death devoured them both.”
― Kylie Lee Baker, Japanese Gothic

“She didn't want Lee Turner to kiss her, or marry her, or fall in love with her. She wanted him to sit beside her on this porch and watch the stars with her for as long as she was still alive. She wanted to exist beside him, to be real and whole in someone else's eyes, to bare her soul to someone and have them stay beside her anyway.”
― Kylie Lee Baker, Japanese Gothic

“Was I so wrong to treasure humans? she wondered. Will they always leave me alone in the dark?
She swore to never care for humans again, to never lend them her heart, never try to save them from themselves. But still, she tasted their tears like the salt of the sea, felt the ache of their pain deep in her bones, cried for them as she wished someone would cry for her, even once. She did not know if she would ever find the love that humans held for only each other, but she would continue searching until the end of time.”
― Kylie Lee Baker, Japanese Gothic

“No one kills without a purpose, even if that purpose is something horrible like “death excites me” or “I wanted to see what it was like.” But Lee didn’t want to taste James’s blood, didn’t want to hold that horrible feeling of an entire star system collapsing in his chest. Lee was full of dead stars and empty universes now. There was a reason, but he couldn’t remember it.”
― Kylie Lee Baker, Japanese Gothic

“People lied all the time for silly reasons—embarrassment, forgetfulness, nervousness. Lies didn't always mean that the truth was important.”
― Kylie Lee Baker, Japanese Gothic

“Maybe the bridge between life and death isn’t a bridge at all. Maybe it’s more like an ocean. You’re under the water”
― Kylie Lee Baker, Japanese Gothic

“Lee pressed his forehead to Sen’s, and his warm tears now ran down her cheeks. She could taste their saltiness as they reached her lips.
“I have no one left,” Lee whispered, so softly that Sen felt it more than she heard it. “My mother is dead, Hina is dead, and you will be dead soon too.”
“And your father?” Sen asked.
“Sen, he can’t see me,” Lee whispered, and more tears streamed down his face. “If there’s no one who can truly see you, it’s as if you don’t exist at all.”
― Kylie Lee Baker, Japanese Gothic

“The path of the samurai lies in death.
Samurai had to abandon the concept of the soul, and with it, fear. Only when they lived as if they were already dead could they be truly free in battle—not as people, but as cold, loyal weapons.
And for years Sen tried.
But her soul clung to her hands like tree sap, and her fear screamed brightly on the horizon every morning, scaring the birds from the trees. It was her shadow, and it never left her, no matter how fast she ran.”
― Kylie Lee Baker, Japanese Gothic

“The samurai were not all heroes,' she said quietly. 'They were warriors, then they were bullies, then they were bureaucrats. Then one day, all at once, they were gone.”
― Kylie Lee Baker, Japanese Gothic