Arthur Golden

I felt as the waves of the ocean must feel when clouds have blocked the warmth of the sun.

Some people have difficulty telling the difference between something great and something they’ve simply heard of.

A tree may look as beautiful as ever, but when you notice insects infesting it, and the tips of the branches that are brown from disease even the trunk seems to lose some of its magnificence.

Dreams can be such dangerous things; they smolder on like a fire does, and sometimes consume us completely.

I never seek to defeat the man I'm fighting, I seek to defeat his confidence. A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory. Two men are equals -true equals- only when they both have equal confidence.

Everything around me seemed to grow so quiet, as if he were the wind that blew and I were just a cloud carries upon it.

We don't become geisha because we want our lives to be happy; we become geisha because we have no choice.

He was like a song I'd heard once in fragments but had been singing in my mind ever since.

If you'd asked me why I wanted these things, I would have answered, why does a ripe persimmon taste delicious? Why does wood smell smoky when it burns?

A winter scene, though it may be covered over one day, with even trees dressed in shawls of snow, will be unrecognizable the following spring.

If you have experienced an evening more exciting than any in life, you're sad to see it end, and yet you still feel grateful that it happened.

I felt as a simple smelt must feel when a silver salmon glides by.