“Chilled-looking people walking along the riverside, the snow beginning, faintly, to pile up on the roofs of cars, the bare trees shaking their heads left and right, dry leaves tossing in the wind. The silver of the metal window sash sparkling coldly.Soon after, I heard sensei call, "Mikage! Are you awake? It's snowing, look! It's snowing!""I'm coming!" I called out, standing up. I got dressed to begin another day. Over and over, we begin again.”

“I got dressed to begin another day. Over and over, we begin again. (Kitchen, 103)”

“Can you believe it's been over seventeen years since I've touched snow? Since I've heard that soft, comforting sound it makes as it crunches beneath your boots? It won't be much longer. I can feel it in my bones. Soon I'll have snow again. I'll stand in it and look up at the stars until I can no longer feel my feet.”

“People in the real world would kill for a happily ever after, and you're willing to just throw it away ?"I look away from her. "It's hardly a happily ever after when you wind up right at the beginning.”

“I shake my head, watching snow tumble and swirl from an all-white sky. The world seems so clean if you only look up”

“At the bakery it's just me. It's a small place. Just me and the raspberry horns and the tourtiere pies and my cigarette going in the ashtray near the black sink. Every once in a while a car passes through the dark street outside the storefont windows, but that's pretty much all I see of people while I'm there, until the end of my shift at eight when Monica shows up to open the store for the day. A solid twelve hours by myself, nothing but the radio to keep me company, and I like it just fine, being alone. It's even better in the winter, during a storm, when the snow piles up outside and no cars come by at all. Inside the bakery it's warm and there's plenty to keep my hands busy. Times like that, for all I can tell I'm the only person left on earth. I could go on making pies and watching the snow pile up until the end of time, so long as there was enough coffee on hand. I don't need company like some people seem to.”