Quotes from Geisha, a Life

Mineko Iwasaki ·  297 pages

Rating: (16.4K votes)


“Cleaning is considered a vital part of the training process in all traditional Japanese disciplines and is a required practice for any novice. It is accorded spiritual significance. Purifying an unclean place is believed to purify the mind.”
― Mineko Iwasaki, quote from Geisha, a Life


“And we are not mountaintop sages who can live by consuming mist.”
― Mineko Iwasaki, quote from Geisha, a Life


“Kimono, the. Costumes of our profession, are sacred to us. They are the emblems of our calling. Kimono embody beautyas we understand!!!”
― Mineko Iwasaki, quote from Geisha, a Life


“So we support the dance but it does not support us.”
― Mineko Iwasaki, quote from Geisha, a Life


“Non è mai giusto colpire altre persone o causare loro del dolore.”
― Mineko Iwasaki, quote from Geisha, a Life



“Ricordo ancora dei momenti magnifici, in cui la famiglia era al completo...non immaginavo neppure lontanamente che da lì a breve quegli idilliaci intermezzi sarebbero finiti.
Eppure presto accadde.”
― Mineko Iwasaki, quote from Geisha, a Life


“Gli abiti che usiamo per la nostra professione per noi sono sacri. Rappresentano l'emblema della nostra vocazione. Realizzati con i tessuti più belli e costosi del mondo, i kimono incarnano la bellezza per come noi la concepiamo. Ciascun kimono è un'opera d'arte unica e colei che lo possiede partecipa attivamente alla sua creazione. In linea generale, si può dire molto di una persona dalla qualità del kimono che indossa: stato economico, gusto, retroterra familiare, personalità. A fronte di piccole variazioni nel taglio, c'è un'enorme varietà di colori e motivi nei materiali usati per realizzare ogni abito. Scegliere un kimono adatto alla situazione in cui verrà indossato è un'arte. Il giusto abbinamento in base alle stagioni è fondamentale. I canoni del gusto tradizionale giapponese dividono l'anno in ventotto stagioni, ciascuna delle quali possiede i propri simboli. I colori e i motivi del kimono e dell'obi dovrebbero rispecchiare la stagione: l'usignolo a fine marzo, per esempio, o il crisantemo nei primi giorni di novembre.”
― Mineko Iwasaki, quote from Geisha, a Life


“fiction has served to propagate the notion that courtesans ply their trade in the area and that geiko spend the night with their customers. Once an idea like this is planted in the general culture it takes on a life of its own. I understand that there are some scholars of Japan in foreign countries who also believe these misconceptions to be true. But”
― Mineko Iwasaki, quote from Geisha, a Life


About the author

Mineko Iwasaki
Born place: in Kyoto, Japan
Born date November 2, 1949
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Screens of tumbling water, breaking the world beyond them into glittering lines and smeared shadows. Kellhus had ceased trying to penetrate them.
“Power,” Anasûrimbor Moënghus said, “is always power over. When an infant may be either, what is the difference between a Fanim and an Inrithi? Or between a Nansur and a Scylvendi? What could be so malleable in Men that anyone, split between circumstances, could be his own murderer?
“You learned this lesson quickly. You looked across Wilderness and you saw thousands upon thousands of them, their backs bent to the field, their legs spread to the ceiling, their mouths reciting scripture, their arms hammering steel … Thousands upon thousands of them, each one a small circle of repeating actions, each one a wheel in the great machine of nations …
“You understood that when men stop bowing, the emperor ceases to rule, that when the whips are thrown into the river, the slave ceases to serve. For an infant to be an emperor or a slave or a merchant or a whore or a general or whatever, those about him must act accordingly. And Men act as they believe.
“You saw them, in their thousands, spread across the world in great hierarchies, the actions of each exquisitely attuned to the expectations of others. The identity of Men, you discovered, was determined by the beliefs, the assumptions, of others. This is what makes them emperors or slaves … Not their gods. Not their blood.
“Nations live as Men act,” Moënghus said, his voice refracted through the ambient rush of waters. “Men act as they believe. And Men believe as they are conditioned. Since they are blind to their conditioning, they do not doubt their intuitions …”
Kellhus nodded in wary assent. “They believe absolutely,” he said.”
― R. Scott Bakker, quote from The Thousandfold Thought


“That wasn't so bad. She said, dabbing at her mouth with a napkin. What was it?
That was a Rocky Mountain oyster, also know as a Montana tendergroin.
No. I just ate bull's balls?
Only one, but yes, you just tore up a tasty testicle. Congratulations!”
― Kevin Hearne, quote from Tricked


“Telling me that you wanted to. Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad to hear that, but it makes me want to let you do it again. And for me to do it again. But I wouldn’t want to use just my tongue.” He pressed his forehead to mine, and I drew in a shaky breath at his closeness. “I’d start with that, but I’d want to use my hands and I wouldn’t stop there.”
― J. Lynn, quote from Be with Me


“Everyone wants a Christmas tree. If you had a Christmas tree Santa would bring you stuff! Like hair curlers and slut shoes.”
― Janet Evanovich, quote from Visions of Sugar Plums


“This was the writer's true doppelgänger, I thought; not some invisible imp of the perverse who watched you from the shadows, periodically appearing, dressed in your clothes and carrying your house keys, to set fire to your life; but rather the typical protagonist of your work -- Roderick Usher, Eric Waldensee, Francis Macomber, Dick Diver -- whose narratives at first reflected but in time came to determine your life's very course.”
― Michael Chabon, quote from Wonder Boys


Interesting books

Odin's Ravens
(2.7K)
Odin's Ravens
by K.L. Armstrong
Captive Prince: Volume One
(33.3K)
Captive Prince: Volu...
by C.S. Pacat
The Three Theban Plays: Antigone / Oedipus the King / Oedipus at Colonus
(52.3K)
The Three Theban Pla...
by Sophocles
The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing
(9.8K)
The Sleepwalker's Gu...
by Mira Jacob
Humans of New York
(14.1K)
Humans of New York
by Brandon Stanton
The Rocks
(7.1K)

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.