“It was as if I were writing letters to hold together the pieces of my crumbling life.”

“I wrote a huge number of letters that spring: one a week to Naoko, several to Reiko, and several more to Midori. I wrote letters in the classroom, I wrote letters at my desk at home with Seagull in my lap, I wrote letters at empty tables during my breaks at the Italian restaurant. It was as if I were writing letters to hold together the pieces of my crumbling life.”

“Generally, people who are good at writing letters have no need to write letters. They've got plenty of life to lead inside their own context.”

“Letters are just pieces of paper," I said. "Burn them, and what stays in your heart will stay; keep them, and what vanishes will vanish.”

“She and I were bound together at the border between life and death. It was like that for us from the start”

“I'll write to you. A super-long letter, like in an old-fashioned novel”

“Life's no piece of cake, mind you, but the recipe's my own to fool with.”