“I said nothing for a time, just ran my fingertips along the edge of the human-shaped emptiness that had been left inside me.”

“There. My ears are all dead. Now you try."Three times I repeated the movements she'd made. Slowly, carefully, but nothing left me with the impression that my ears had died. The wine was rapidly circulating through my system."I do believe that my ears aren't dying properly, " I said, disappointed.She shook her head. "That's okay. If your ears don't need to die, there's nothing wrong with them not dying.”

“He followed his daily routine, and she followed hers. But without her there, Tengo noticed a human-shaped void she had left behind.”

“As long as I was alive, I was something. That was just how it was. But somewhere along the way it all changed. Living turned me into nothing.”

“Does this mean that my life has been nothing but a process through which I am giving concrete form to the dormant image inside me? And how much responsibility do I bear … ?”

“He felt as if his heart had dried up. I needed her he thought. I needed someone like her to fill the void inside me. But I wasn’t able to fill the void inside her. Until the bitter end, the emptiness inside her was hers alone.”

“Something inside me had dropped away, and nothing came in to fill the cavern.”