“One sad thing about this world is that the acts that take the most out of you are usually the ones that people will never know about.(from 'Celestial Navigation')”

“It is always sad to leave a place to which one knows one will never return. Such are the melancolies du voyage: perhaps they are one of the most rewarding things about traveling.”

“One thing I have learned is that the people who label you are usually the ones who know the least about who you really are and they have never made the effort to learn different.”

“The things most people want to know about are usually none of their business.”

“One last word of advice, though, Mr. Okada, though you may not want to hear this. There are things in this world it is better not to know about. Of course, those are the very things that people most want to know about. It's strange.”

“Because that's the thing about mean people: They make you think that the world will never work, that there are divides that you will fall into if you approach. It takes a whole lot of good people to fill in the breach created by a single mean one.”