“You can never have too many knives, his father had told him. Unless they're pointed at you, and by people who don't like you much. ”

“Never trust a mirror,' his mother had told him. 'They never tell the truth unless you make them.”

“His father had told him time and again never to underestimate the power of something that could kill you.”

“Each person is made of five different elements, she told me. Too much fire and you had a bad temper. That was like my father, whom my mother always critized for his cigarette habit and who always shouted back that she should feel guilty that he didn't let my mother speak her mind.Too little wood and you bent too quickly to listen to other people's ideas, unable to stand on your own. This was like my Auntie An-mei. Too much water and you flowed in too many different directions. like myself.”

“There're too many people in the world like you," Yoshio said. "Too many people who don't have anyone they care about. Who think if they don't love anyone else then they're free to do whatever they want. They think they have nothing to lose, and that makes them stronger. If you have nothing to lose, there's nothing you really want, either. You're full of confidence, and look down on people who lose things, who want things, who are happy, or sad sometimes. But that's not the way things are. And it's just not right.”

“Huge organizations and me don't get along. They're too inflexible, waste too much time, and have too many stupid people.”