Kazuo Ishiguro

"If you go to Tokyo, I think it becomes very obvious that theres this almost seamless mixture of popular culture and Japanese traditional culture."

"I have a sense of having just left without saying goodbye, and of this whole other world just kind of fading away. … I have the feeling of this completely alternative person I should have become. There was another life that I might have had, but I am having this one."

"What is this gallery? Why should she have a gallery of things done by us?"

"Maybe she sells them. Outside, out there."

"My donors have always tended to do much better than expected."

"Itll come off. If you cant get it off yourself, just take it to Miss Jody."

"At least you got him to pipe down, she said. Are you okay? Mad animal."

"And Im a Hailsham student – which is enough by itself sometimes to get peoples backs up."

"It never occurred to us to wonder how we would feel being seen like that."

"Kath, Ive been looking all over for you. I meant to say sorry. I mean, Im really, really sorry. I honestly didnt mean to hit you the other day. I wouldnt dream of hitting a girl, and even if I did, Id never want to hit you. Im really, really sorry."

"Well, this is a surprise. If you arent here to give me trouble, then why are you here?"

"More fundamentally, Im interested in memory because its a filter through which we see our lives, and because its foggy and obscure, the opportunities for self-deception are there. In the end, as a writer, Im more interested in what people tell themselves happened rather than what actually happened."