Butter

Asako Yuzuki

Fiction

Read in

2025

More about the book

Highlights

‘Don’t you think that’s a disease of the contemporary age? It feels like these days our value is determined by how much effort we make on a daily basis. That matters even more than our results. After a while, the concept of effort starts to become mixed up with things feeling difficult, and then you reach the point where the person seen as the most admirable is the one suffering the most.

When you’re forced to do something, it becomes a chore, and the pleasure disappears.’

‘I think it’s because you don’t mind if your acquaintances get to know one another when you’re not there. You’re not bothered by the idea of them forming new connections or talking about you, right? I think that’s a rare quality. People are usually desperate to hold on to what they’ve got, desperate not to lose anything.’

If God exists, He wouldn’t take joy or satisfaction in the sight of suffering. Which means, you don’t have to get through everything alone. You don’t have to always be growing as a person either. The far more important thing is just to get through the day.’