"If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking."

"Sometimes I think I'm the only sane person in a crazy world."

"And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When yo…"

"Every time I write a novel, it's like going to war."

"I don’t want to be labeled as a ‘Japanese writer.’ I’m just a writer who happens to be Japanese."