Pachinko Quotes
"In the spring of 1911, two weeks after Hoonie turned twenty-eight, the red-cheeked matchmaker from town called on his mother."
"The peasants knew that a spoiled son did more harm to a family than a dead one."
"If it were possible for a man and his wife to share one heart, Hoonie was this steady, beating organ."
"Sunja was a normal-looking girl with a quick laugh and bright, but to her father, she was a beauty."
"This thing called the Depression was found everywhere in the world."
"For a woman, the man you marry will determine the quality of your life completely."
"A woman's life is endless work and suffering."
"My life is nothing. It wouldn’t have any meaning without putting it to good use. Don’t you think?"
"You saved my life. I would have died if you had not taken me in and nursed me. You’ve gone far beyond what an innkeeper does for his guest."
"It’s a lot, I think, to ask of you. It might not make sense now. It will take time. I do understand that."
"The child would have a terrible life here. You’d be saving my daughter’s life as well."
"I’ll love this child, and I will love you and honor you."
"I want them to eat their fill. Whatever’s left over, I’ll make them some sweet cake."
"A woman should always have something put by."
"Never come home again. Make a good home for him and your child. That’s your job. They must not suffer."
"Be extra careful around other Koreans; the bad ones know that the police won’t listen to our complaints."
"We’ll make a tasty broth from stones and bitterness."
"The police are Japanese. The laws aren’t clear."
"Eventually, each activist is picked off like ripe fruit from the same stupid tree."
"It’s wonderful, It’s a great thing about this country."
"Your body is a sacred temple where the Holy Spirit dwells."
"The world judges girls harshly for improprieties—and even accidents."
"The Lord forgives, but the world does not forgive."
"We must support each other while we’re far from home."
"The price of fresh food kept rising, and working people couldn’t afford the most basic things."
"Sometimes, she sold a few bags to the young women getting off the train at about this time."
"People were willing to lie about small things and to disregard your interests."
"Even when there were others around, it had been just the three of them."
"Isak had prayed constantly for his family’s provision."
"For the first time in years, Tamaguchi felt relaxed."
"The people in charge don’t know anything. And the ones who do don’t care."
"When the war ends, I’ll work to take care of them. I’m working now to earn our keep."
"In her life, she’d been desired by two men; it was difficult to imagine having that again."
"Sometimes, she felt like a serviceable farm animal who’d one day be useless."
"I understand. I’m grateful for this opportunity—to work and to be safe."
"Had the others noticed them talking? They seemed to be focused on the comic book."
"Lying on his back, Yoseb stared at the barn roof. Jagged slats of light broke through the beams."
"Women are so tasty. Like candy! I don’t know how I’ll ever settle down."
"The minuscule adjustments he made were sufficiently frustrating to the regular customers."
"The women need a workingman to watch over them."
"It was a pity, she thought, that he was Korean, because her grandparents would disown her if she dated him."
"Making money was ten times easier and more pleasant than trying to stuff the kanji he had no use for into his head."
"Goro was a fat and glamorous Korean, notably popular with beautiful women."
"The women were speaking in low voices in the kitchen for fear of waking Yoseb."
"A hardworking scholar should not have to worry about money."
"No. You have to study. You had to take that exam again and again, not because you are not smart. You are very smart."
"If love required sacrifice, then Isak had really loved her."
"Learn everything. Fill your mind with knowledge—it’s the only kind of power no one can take away from you."
"You didn’t have all the proper tutoring that the average Japanese middle-class child would have had."
"I am not a good man, but I believe that I am saved."
"To live without forgiveness was a kind of death with breathing and movement."
"I will earn enough money to repay Koh Hansu. Please make sure that he never reaches me."
"How can you make something clean from something dirty?"
"It’s for the best that you don’t give birth when it isn’t good for your health."
"A curse is a terrible, terrible thing. And a curse with moral power is the worst!"
"Working in the basement of a grocery store. Counting inventory. That’s not an easy life for anyone, you know."
"You people work together to make sure nothing ever changes. Sho ga nai. Sho ga nai. That’s all I ever hear."
"He was talented. He could remember any face and draw it perfectly. He could do many things we didn’t know how to do."
"No, no. I just need to speak to your master. Please, child. Please help me."
"I can make that tomorrow night. He won’t leave until Sunday afternoon."
"You’re the worst kind of man, because you won’t let go until you get your way."
"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good."
"I'm good at drinking and fucking. Soo desu nee."
"I have never been to Japan...but I hope to never bring shame to my people."
"I want to be on television, like those girls in the dramas."
"I'm just a kid with divorced parents. You think I'm nothing."
"I can’t imagine bowing all day to lazy, fat customers who complain about nothing."
"Life just fucks and fucks and fucks bastards like that."
"It’s not worth it to get involved with the bad guys."
"You should never work for a dirty bank again."
"You’re a nice boy, Solomon, and you will have a future in finance, but not here."
"I never had someone pray for me before, Solomon."
"Characters cannot exist alone, and certainly they are never in a vacuum."
"I am drawn to novel writing using the omniscient point of view."
"The twenty-first-century author has a lot of choices."
"I wanted my narrator to be as objective as possible."
"I wanted the narrator to be fair to each perspective."
"In realistic fiction, characters cannot exist alone."
"I am interested in the minor characters as well as the major ones."
"Women have become at best the minor characters in history."
"The pachinko business and the game itself serve as metaphors."
"Pachinko generates revenues of about 19 trillion yen."
"I wanted to reflect how a poor young woman’s unconventional beauty can be magnetic and resilient."
"There are many women in history and in life who are not conventionally attractive yet who are very appealing."
"My subjects are history, war, economics, class, sex, gender, and religion."
"I missed the ease of conversation that Americans can have with strangers."
"In New York, I am more guarded and private, but in Tokyo, I felt a kind of intense and immediate kinship with my fellow Americans."
"Living in Tokyo, I missed America very much; I yearned for the openness, hospitality, and optimism of Americans."