Seeing the moon, he becomes the moon, the moon seen by him becomes him. He sinks into nature, becomes one with nature. The light of the "clear heart" of the priest, seated in the meditation hall in the darkness before the dawn, becomes for the dawn moon its own light.

---

The road was frozen. The village lay quiet under the cold sky. Komako hitched up the skirt of her kimono and tucked it into her obi. The moon shone like a blade frozen in blue ice.

---

Cosmic time is the same for everyone, but human time differs with each person. Time flows in the same way for all human beings; every human being flows through time in a different way.

---

I wonder what the retirement age is in the novel business. The day you die.

---

Put your soul in the palm of my hand for me to look at, like a crystal jewel. I'll sketch it in words.

---

It's remarkable how we go on year after year, doing the same old things. We get tired and bored, and ask when they'll come for us

---

Now, even more than the evening before, he could think of no one with whom to compare her. She had become absolute, beyond comparison. She had become decision and fate.

---

The snow on the distant mountains was soft and creamy, as if veiled in a faint smoke.

---

Because you cannot see him, God is everywhere.

---

Our language is primarily for expressing human goodness and beauty.

---