Because maybe, in a way, we didn’t leave it behind nearly as much as we might once have thought. Because somewhere underneath, a part of us stayed like that: fearful of the world around us, and no matter how much we despised ourselves for it–unable quite to let each other go.
—Kazuo Ishiguro
Memory, I realize, can be an unreliable thing; often it is heavily coloured by the circumstances in which one remembers, and no doubt this applies to certain of the recollections I have gathered here.
—Kazuo Ishiguro
A man who aspires to rise above the mediocre, to be something more than the ordinary, surely deserves admiration, even if he fails and loses a fortune on account of his ambitions … if one has failed only where others have not had the courage or will to try, there is consolation – indeed, deep satisfaction – to be gained from his observation when looking back over one’s life.
—Kazuo Ishiguro
It doesn’t matter how old someone is, it’s what they’ve experienced that counts. People can get to be a hundred and not experience a thing.
—Kazuo Ishiguro
One should not, in any case, attempt to make a virtue out of one’s limitations.
—Kazuo Ishiguro
Abiding love that has endured the years—that we see only rarely. When we do, we’re only too glad to ferry the couple together.
—Kazuo Ishiguro
Topics: Life, Live, Worry, Misfortunes, General, Fortune
Perhaps there are those who are able to go about their lives unfettered by such concerns. But for those like us, our fate is to face the world as orphans, chasing through long years the shadows of vanished parents. There is nothing for it but to try and see through our missions to the end, as best we can, for until we do so, we will be permitted no calm.
—Kazuo Ishiguro
Some of you will have fine monuments by which the living may remember the evil done to you. Some of you will have only crude wooden crosses or painted rocks, while yet others of you must remain hidden in the shadows of history.
—Kazuo Ishiguro
After all, what can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished?
—Kazuo Ishiguro
One is not struck by the truth until prompted quite accidentally by some external event.
—Kazuo Ishiguro
What is pertinent is the calmness of beauty, its sense of restraint. It is as though the land knows of its own beauty, its own greatness, and feels no need to shout it.
—Kazuo Ishiguro
When you are young, there are many things which appear dull and lifeless. But as you get older, you will find these are the very things that are most important to you.
—Kazuo Ishiguro
Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.
—Kazuo Ishiguro
Topics: Confidence, Leadership
There is certainly a satisfaction and dignity to be gained in coming to terms with the mistakes one has made in the course of one’s life.
—Kazuo Ishiguro
After all, there’s no turning back the clock now. One can’t be forever dwelling on what might have been. One should realize one has as good as most, perhaps better, and be grateful.
—Kazuo Ishiguro
Our generation still carry the old feelings. A part of us refuses to let go. The part that wants to keep believing there’s something unreachable inside each of us. Something that’s unique and won’t transfer. But there’s nothing like that, we know that now. You know that. For people our age it’s a hard one to let go.
—Kazuo Ishiguro
Memories, even your most precious ones, fade surprisingly quickly. But I don’t go along with that. The memories I value most, I don’t see them ever fading.
—Kazuo Ishiguro
You have to accept that sometimes that’s how things happen in this world. People’s opinions, their feelings, they go one way, then the other. It just so happens you grew up at a certain point in this process.
—Kazuo Ishiguro
Silence is just as likely to indicate the most profound ideas forming, the deepest energies being summoned.
—Kazuo Ishiguro
If you are under the impression you have already perfected yourself, you will never rise to the heights you are no doubt capable of.
—Kazuo Ishiguro
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Salman Rushdie Indian-born British Novelist
- Doris Lessing British Novelist, Poet
- V. S. Naipaul Trinidadian-British Writer
- Aaron Klug English Biophysicist
- T. S. Eliot American-born British Poet
- Cynthia Ozick American Novelist, Essayist
- Rudyard Kipling British Children’s Books Writer
- William Golding English Novelist
- Hanif Kureishi British Novelist, Screenwriter
- Margaret Atwood Canadian Author
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