Kazuo Ishiguro Quotes

There's no use beating yourself up about what you can't change.

There is no point in regretting any part of the past. The past can't now be altered, the future has yet to be lived, and consciously to experience every moment of the present is the only way to gain at least the illusion of immortality.

Brooding over blunders is the biggest blunder.

In a serious sense, wanting to change something from the past doesn't work for me - change something you don't enjoy now rather than regretting it later.

Remorse.-- Never yield to remorse, but at once tell yourself: remorse would simply mean adding to the first act of stupidity a second.

I feel like I failed," I said. "Don't beat yourself up," Jim said. "She might not have turned out like you planned, but that don't mean she turned out wrong.

I don't really believe in regret. I think you can always learn from the past, but I wouldn't want a different life.

I wouldn't go back and change anything.

I believe there were things I probably should have done differently. But I'm not going to spend a lot of time crying over spilt milk.

I try not to look back at anything I do. I avoid it like the plague.

I don't regret anything in life.

I don't really have any regrets.

I won't look back and say 'I wish I could change things.'

I don't like having regrets, I think it's important not to.

If I could undo what's been done, But I guess everyone is living, With water and bridges.

Learning from our mistakes is critical for improving, but even I don't have patience for ranking my regrets. Regret is a negative emotion that inhibits the optimism required to take on new challenges. You risk living in an alternative universe, where if only you had done this or that differently, things would be better. That's a poor substitute for making your actual life better, or improving the lives of others. Regret briefly, analyze and understand, and then move on, improving the only life you have.

I know, but no matter what I choose I have to live with it. Forever. I have to be able to go forward and not look back anymore. Can you understand that?

You have to look at what you have right in front of you, at what it could be, and stop measuring it against what you've lost. I know this to be wise and true, just as I know that pretty much no one can do it.

Though the past haunt me as a spirit, I do not ask to forget.

All things are possible, ... Except the passing of regret.

You can't get stuck on what should have happened. That doesn't help you.

As she realized what might have been, she grew to be thankful for what was.

There's mistakes that I have made. Some chances I just threw away. Some roads I never should've taken. Been some signs I didn't see. Hearts that I hurt needlessly. Some wounds that I wish I could have one more chance to mend, but it don't make no difference: The past can't be rewritten. You get the life you're given.

I'm too old to recover, too narrow to forgive myself.

I'd never understood the injunction not to regret anything, couldn't see how that wasn't cowardice.