“Time seems to overlap, like the shadows of leave pressing down on other leave, layer upon layer.”

“It was odd how Aritomo's life seemed to glance off mine; we were like two leaves falling from a tree, touching each other now and again as they spiraled to the forest floor.”

“Memory is like patches of sunlight in an overcast valley, shifting with the movement of the clouds. Now and then the light will fall on a particular point in time, illuminating it for a moment before the wind seals up the gap, and the world is in shadows again.”

“The world goes by, the young and the hopeful, all head for their future. Where does that leave us? There is a misconception that we have reached our destinations the moment we grow old, but it is not a well-accepted fact that we are still travelling towards those destinations, still beyond our reach even on the day we close our eyes for the final time.”

“The mountains are as I have always remembered them, the first light of the morning melting down their flanks.”

“Time is eating away my memory. Time, and this illness, this trespasser in my brain.”

“Moments in time when the world is changing bring out the best and the worst in people.”