“The gears of life had moved ahead a notch with a loud ker-chunk, and Junpei knew that they would never turn back again.”

“You know, Junpei, everything in the world has its reasons for doing what it does.”

“But if you knew you might not be able to see it again tomorrow, everything would suddenly become special and precious, wouldn’t it?”

“Even if we could turn back, we'd probably never end up where we started.”

“Let the world move along as it pleased. If it had any business with him, it would be sure to tell him.”

“She repeated what her mother had told me, that she had been moved when she heard me playing as she passed the house. She had seen me on the street a few times, too, and begun to worship me. She actually used that word: worship. It made me turn bright red. I mean, to be 'worshiped' by such a beautiful little doll of a girl! I don't think it was an absolute lie, though. I was in my thirties already, of course, and I could never be as beautiful and bright as she was, and I had no special talent, but I must have had something that drew her to me, something that was missing in her, I would guess. Which must have been what got her interested in my to begin with. I believe that now, looking back. And I'm not boasting.”

“A few gray cotton chunks of cloud hung there, motionless.”