“Distance might not solve anything, no matter how far you run.”

“No matter what they wish for, no matter how far they go, people can never be anything but themselves. That's all.”

“You said you're going far away," Tamaru said. "How far away are we talking about?""It's a distance that can't be measured.""Like the distance that separates one person's heart from another's.”

“But what seems like a reasonable distance to one person might feel too far to somebody else.”

“No matter how much long-distance running might suit me, of course there are days when I feel kind of lethargic and don’t want to run. Actually, it happens a lot. On days like that, I try to think of all kinds of plausible excuses to slough it off. Once, I interviewed the Olympic running Toshihiko Seko, just after he retired from running and became manager of the S&B company team. I asked him, “Does a runner at your level ever feel like you’d rather not run today, like you don’t want to run and would rather just sleep in?” He stared at me and then, in a voice that made it abundantly clear how stupid he thought the question was, replied, “Of course. All the time!”

“No matter how far you travel, you can never get away from yourself.”

“If you look at things from a distance, most anything looks beautiful.”