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“How fragile life was, she thought, how unpredictable. We flatter ourselves, thinking we are actors on a stage, geniuses who write our own plays, extemporize our words, and shift major plot lines and the most subtle of nuances at our every whim. Perhaps wooden Bunraku puppets feel the same way. They do not notice the puppeteers who guide their every move.”
― Takashi Matsuoka, Kastel Awan Burung Gereja

“Crisis changes people,” Genji said, filling Heiko’s cup in turn. “If they are fortunate, crisis shows them what truly matters.”
― Takashi Matsuoka, Kastel Awan Burung Gereja

“I learned to make things not matter, to put a seal on my hopes and place them on a high shelf, out of reach. And by telling myself that there was nothing inside those hopes anyway, I avoided the wounds of deep disappointment. The pain was no worse than the quick sting of a booster shot. And yet thinking about this makes me ache again. How is it that as a child I knew I should have been loved more? Is everyone born with a bottomless emotional resevoir? ”
― Amy Tan, The Hundred Secret Senses

“too much happiness always overflowed into tears of sorrow.”
― Amy Tan, The Hundred Secret Senses