First Quote Added
April 10, 2026
Latest Quote Added
"This Christmas, when you lose your way, just remember the magic always returns."
"In a place we hold dear, where wonder once lived... but soon from above, a new story begins."
"Everything is possible, even the impossible."
"Nothing. Such a useful word, isn't it? It can mean anything and everything."
"Same thing that brought me the first time: I've come to look after the Banks children."
"Shizuko Hoshi - Narrator (Sayuri as an elderly woman, voice only)"
"[On the phone] Do you think I am a sucker?"
"Michelle Yeoh - Mameha"
"At least you don't smell as bad as your sister. You know, she was here."
"Can't you see? Every step I have taken, since I was that child on the bridge has been to bring myself closer to you."
"[as Mother mocks her relationship with Koichi, about to call her a common prostitute] Don't say it!"
"[To Hatsumomo] Don't exaggerate! You have never even found a danna. You chose that no-good Koichi. Sneaking through your window at all hours of the night. Not like a geisha, like a common prostitute."
"Geisha needs an elegant wardrobe, just like an artist needs ink. If she is not properly dressed, then she is not a true geisha."
"Suzuka Ohgo - Chiyo (Sayuri as a young girl)"
"You're just jealous somebody cares for me!"
"[When he first meets Chiyo by the river] Where did you come by such surprising eyes?"
"No man would ever bid so much for a thing he had already taken."
"Smile for me, won't you?"
"Not every geisha uses that kind of currency."
"I want a life that is mine!"
"Why can't you be quiet?"
"I can just hear my General now. "Why Hatsumomo. You used to smell of jasmine... What's this new perfume...? Blowfish?""
"I shall destroy you."
"Why Sayuri...look what I found. You've been hiding your love for a long time... The sacrifice every geisha must make!"
"Doctor is very expensive. You seem to be racking up quite a debt. Kimono, destroyed. Geisha school, rice and pickles, train ticket, Mr. Bekku, all of this, on top of the money I paid Mr. Tanaka. And for what? And now I hear your sister has run away! She didn't wait for you, and now she can never come back. You must forget you ever had a sister. We are your only family now."
"These country girls. Too late to send her back now."
"Hurry up! [chuckling] You're not making money standing there gawking at yourself!"
"Only reason Mother tolerates Hatsumomo is because she brings in good money. Never forget, it is Hatsumomo who pays for your supper, the clothes on your back. By the time she was twenty, she had already earned back her purchase price! Unheard of! She has been the talk of the hanamachi ever since."
"[Sparking flint behind Sayuri] For luck!"
"Zhang Ziyi - Sayuri"
"Now I understood the thing I´d overlooked; the point wasn't to become a geisha but to be one. To become a geisha...well, that was hardly a purpose in life. But to be a geisha... I could see it now as a stepping-stone to something else."
"I could be her. Were we so different? She loved once. She hoped once. I might be looking into my own future. Until the real future came falling from the air... [referring to the war]"
"To a man, Geisha can only be half a wife. We are the wives of nightfall. And yet to learn of kindness, after so much unkindness... To understand that a little girl with more courage than she knew, would find that her prayers were answered...can that not be called happiness? After all, these are not the memoirs of an empress, nor of a queen. These are memoirs of another kind."
"Your honorable sister says, "Cut your leg," you cut your leg. She says, "Follow me," you follow her. My life had turned into a game, and only she knew the rules."
"You cannot call yourself a true geisha until you can stop a man in his tracks with a single look."
"We don't become geisha to pursue our own destinies. We become geisha because we have no choice."
"Water is always in such a hurry. Perhaps it is just as well - we have no time to lose."
"None of us find as much kindness in this life, as we should."
"Three things matter in life... sumo, business, and war. Understand one, you know them all. But why should a Geisha care? You spend your time plucking strings and dancing."
"I do not like things held up before me that I cannot have."
"I humbly beg to differ. What is sumo but a dance between giants? What is business but a dance between companies? I would like to know about every kind of dance."
"I see now why you like Sumo, you can never judge a man's power by his appearance alone."
"Besides, who wants a plum when someone has already had a bite?"
"A pity she still stinks of fish."
"Stay out of my room. I can't have you touching my things."
"A story like mine should never be told. For my world is as forbidden as it is fragile; without its mysteries it cannot survive."
"At the temple, there is a poem called "Loss", carved into the stone. It has three words...but the poet has scratched them out. You cannot read "Loss"... Only feel it."
"The heart dies a slow death, shedding each hope like leaves... Until one day there are none. No hopes. Nothing remains."
"It is not for Geisha to want. It is not for Geisha to feel. Geisha is an artist of the floating world. She dances. She sings. She entertains you. Whatever you want. The rest is shadows. The rest is secret."
"My mother always said my sister Satsu was like wood; as rooted to the earth as a sakura tree. But she told me I was like water. Water can carve its way even through stone...and when trapped, water makes a new path..."
Young though he was, his radiant energy produced such an impression of absolute reliability that Hedgewar made him the first sarkaryavah, or general secretary, of the RSS.
- Gopal Mukund Huddar
Largely because of the influence of communists in London, Huddar's conversion into an enthusiastic supporter of the fight against fascism was quick and smooth. The ease with which he crossed from one worldview to another betrays the fact that he had not properly understood the world he had grown in.
Huddar would have been 101 now had he been alive. But then centenaries are not celebrated only to register how old so and so would have been and when. They are usually celebrated to explore how much poorer our lives are without them. Maharashtrian public life is poorer without him. It is poorer for not having made the effort to recall an extraordinary life.
I regret I was not there to listen to Balaji Huddar's speech [...] No matter how many times you listen to him, his speeches are so delightful that you feel like listening to them again and again.
By the time he came out of Franco's prison, Huddar had relinquished many of his old ideas. He displayed a worldview completely different from that of the RSS, even though he continued to remain deferential to Hedgewar and maintained a personal relationship with him.