Yoko Ogawa

Though I’ve tried, I’ve found no way to fill in the voids left by the Memory Police.

The mention of money was probably nothing more than a smoke screen.

they were almost off-putting.

he believed that mistakes were often as revealing as the right answers. This gave us confidence even when our best efforts came to nothing.

I couldn’t hear him clearly, but I decided not to ask him to repeat himself, in case it had been something less romantic

Jealousy seems to make me suffer in the most unexpected ways

I must have had a good reason for wanting to kill myself, but I’ve forgotten what it was

There, behind your heartbeat, have you stored up all my lost memories?

But in a world turned upside down, things I thought were mine and mine alone can be taken away much more easily than I would have imagined.

But in a world turned upside down, things I thought were mine and mine alone can be taken away much more easily than I would have imagined. If my body were cut up in pieces and those pieces mixed with those of other bodies, and then if someone told me, “Find your left eye,” I suppose it would be difficult to do so.