“Lady #1, Maki, had never once given any thought to what was really right for her in her life, simply believing that if she surrounded herself with super-exclusive things, she'd become a super-exclusive person.”

“It was the face of a human being who’d been constructed exclusively of wounds. Not time or history or ambition, nothing but wounds. The face of a person who could probably kill someone without feeling anything whatsoever.”

“The song was the late Ishihara Yujiro’s “Rusty Knife,” and Sakaguchi’s singing was so bad that itgave the lyric a strange new pathos and poignancy. Listening to his version, Suzuki Midori wasreminded that no one ever said it would be easy to go on living in this world; Takeuchi Midoripondered the noble truth that nobody’s life consists exclusively of happy times; Henmi Midorivowed to remember that it’s best to keep an open heart and forgive even those who’vetrespassed against us; and Tomiyama Midori had to keep telling herself that hitting rock bottomis in fact the first step to a hopeful new future.”

“She's like smoke:you think you're seeing her clearly enough,but when you reach for her there's nothing there”

“The young peoplenowadays – men and women, amateurs and pros – generally fallinto one of two categories: either they don’t know what it isthat’s most important to them, or they know but don’t have thepower to go after it. But this girl’s different. She knows what’smost important to her and she knows how to get it, but shedoesn’t let on what it is. I’m pretty sure it’s not money, orsuccess, or a normal happy life, or a strong man, or some weirdreligion, but that’s about all I can tell you. She’s like smoke: youthink you’re seeing her clearly enough, but when you reach forher there’s nothing there. That’s a sort of strength, I suppose.But it makes her hard to figure out.”

“But for all we’ve lost, hope is in fact one thing we Japanese have regained. The great earthquake and tsunami have robbed us of many lives and resources. But we who were so intoxicated with our own prosperity have once again planted the seed of hope. So I choose to believe.”

“He wakes! The steel giant wakes! Long, long ago he rose from the sea, with the blood of life streaming from his belly. And then they buried him with thunder...and...carrots...at Stonehenge. But now he wakes again. The Age of Rotten Fish is over; the Age of Steel and Bombs is upon us. And he had come to give us life and strength, to free us form these cells, to restore us once again to baseball and ping pong! Sent by God from the Great Beyond!!!”