There was another life that I might have had, but I am having this one.

— Kazuo Ishiguro

The stranger thought it might be God himself had forgotten much from our pasts, events far distant, events of the same day. And if a thing is not in God’s mind, then what chance of it remaining in those of mortal men?

— Kazuo Ishiguro

The truth is, Japan is headed for crisis. We are in the hands of greedy businessmen and weak politicians. Such people will see to it poverty grows every day.

— Kazuo Ishiguro

This country awakens so many memories, though each seems like some restless sparrow I know will flee any moment into the breeze.

— Kazuo Ishiguro

We may now understand better, too, why my father was so fond of the story of the butler who failed to panic on discovering a tiger under the dining table; it was because he knew instinctively that somewhere in this story lay the kernel of what true ‘dignity’ is.

— Kazuo Ishiguro

What do you think dignity's all about?' The directness of the inquiry did, I admit, take me rather by surprise. 'It's rather a hard thing to explain in a few words, sir,' I said. 'But I suspect it comes down to not removing one's clothing in public.

— Kazuo Ishiguro

What he wanted was not just to hear about Hail sham, but to remember Hail sham, just like it had been his own childhood. He knew he was close to completing and so that's what he was doing: getting me to describe things to him, so they'd really sink in, so that maybe during those sleepless nights, with the drugs and the paint and the exhaustion, the line would blur between what were my memories and what were his.

— Kazuo Ishiguro

What I mean is, right from that first time, there was something in Tommy's manner that was tinged with sadness, that seemed today: “Yes, we're doing this now, and I'm glad we're doing it now. But what pity we left it so late.

— Kazuo Ishiguro

What I'm not sure about, is if our lives have been so different from the lives of the people we save. We all complete. Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through, or feel we've had enough time.

— Kazuo Ishiguro

What is more, sir," his lordship went on, "I believe I have a good idea of what you mean by 'professionalism.' It appears to mean getting one's way by cheating and manipulating. It appears to mean serving the dictates of greed and advantage rather than those of goodness and the desire to see justice prevail in the world. If that is the 'professionalism' you refer to, sir, I don't care much for it and have no wish to acquire it.

— Kazuo Ishiguro