Autobiography of a Geisha

When someone who's starved of love is shown something that looks like sincere affection, is it any wonder that she jumps at it and clings to it?

What a lovely place this world would be if only people would feel affection for everyone else, and all the ugliness of the human heart were to vanish - our envy of those better off than ourselves and our scorn for those worse off.

No matter how deep in disgrace, a human being IS human, after all.

Nor was I the only one struggling.To live an ordinary life, like any ordinary person, must have been the vain dream of countless others.

Only when I turned thirty did I finally feel for the first time that I was free, that I could live as I liked, as an individual. It's as if at thirty, I'd been born for the first time. Until then, I was never more than someone's tool.

Never give birth to children thoughtlessly!'' I want to shout it out loud.That is why, stroke by faltering stroke, I've written this all down.