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What makes us the most normal," said Reiko, "is knowing that we're not normal.
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Narrow minds devoid of imagination. Intolerance, theories cut off from reality, empty terminology, usurped ideals, inflexible systems. Those are the things that really frighten me. What I absolutely fear and loathe.
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Letters are just pieces of paper. Burn them, and what stays in your heart will stay; keep them, and what vanishes will vanish.
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You are a beautiful person, Doctor. Clearheaded. Strong. But you seem always to be dragging your heart along the ground. From now on, little by little, you must prepare yourself to face death. If you devote all of your future energy to living, you will not be able to die well. You must begin to shift gears, a little at a time. Living and dying are, in a sense, of equal value.
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Most of the psychological differences between men and women seem to come from differences in their reproductive system.
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Death leaves cans of shaving cream half-used.
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I began running on an everyday basis after I became a writer. As being a writer requires sitting at a desk for hours a day, without getting some exercise you'd quickly get out of shape and gain weight, I figured.
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You are entering a phase of your life in which many different things will occur...bad things that seem good at first and good things that seem bad at first.
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I want you always to remember me. Will you remember that I existed, and that I stood next to you here like this?
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Time, of course, topples everyone in its path equally- the way that driver beats his old horse until it dies. But the thrashing we receive is one of frightful gentleness. Few of us even realize that we are being beaten.
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Pointless thinking is worse than no thinking at all.
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She curled up and pressed her cheek against his chest. Her ear was right above his heart. She was listening to his thoughts. "I need to know this," Aomame said. "That we're in the same world, seeing the same things.
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Did you ever see anyone shot by a gun without bleeding?
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I couldn't tell wether the hole that opened up inside me was from missing you or from the change of season.
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Time flows in strange ways on Sundays, and sights become mysteriously distorted.
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There are many things we only see clearly in retrospect.
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Friends don't need the intervention of a third party. Friendship's a voluntary thing.
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Killing time is not an easy job.
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I wonder what ants do on rainy days?
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As a novelist, you could say that I am dreaming while I am awake, and every day I can continue with yesterday's dream. Because it is a dream, there are so many contradictions and I have to adjust them to make the story work. But, in principle, the original dream does not change.
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Math is like water. It has a lot of difficult theories, of course, but its basic logic is very simple. Just as water flows from high to low over the shortest possible distance, figures can only flow in one direction. You just have to keep your eye on them for the route to reveal itself. That’s all it takes. You don’t have to do a thing. Just concentrate your attention and keep your eyes open, and the figures make everything clear to you. In this whole, wide world, the only thing that treats me so kindly is math.
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Once, when I was younger, I thought I could be someone else. I'd move to Casablanca, open a bar, and I'd meet Ingrid Bergman. Or more realistically - whether actually more realistic or not - I'd tune in on a better life, something more suited to my true self. Toward that end, I had to undergo training. I read The Greening of America, and I saw Easy Rider three times. But like a boat with a twisted rudder, I kept coming back to the same place. I wasn't anywhere. I was myself, waiting on the shore for me to return.
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No matter how long you stand there examining yourself naked before a mirror, you'll never see reflected what's inside.
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Nobody's easier to fool, than the person who is convinced that he is right.