“So what if those stupid roosters don't want to crow? If we've learned to live without men, we can learn to live without cocks.”

“The real ordeal is not leaving those you love but learning to live without those who don't love you.”

“Learning, without any opportunities to share what we've learned, is a little like cooking for ourselves; we do it, but we probably won't do it as well.”

“By living our lives, we nurture death. True as this might be, it was only one of the truths we had to learn. What I learned from Naoko's death was this: no truth can cure the sorrow we feel from losing a loved one. No truth, no sincerity, no strength, no kindness can cure that sorrow. All we can do is see it through to the end and learn something from it, but what we learn will be no help in facing the next sorrow that comes to us without warning.”

“We don't just want what we want because we want it; we want what we want because that's what we've learned to want.”

“I’ve never had anyone’s approval, so I’ve learned to live without it.”