"The task of writing consists primarily in recognizing the distance between oneself and the things around one. It is not sensitivity one needs but a yardstick." 

"'To those of gloomy spirit come only gloomy dreams. And those with even gloomier spirits don't even have dreams.' Thats what my grandmother always said. 

"The night my grandmother died the very first thing I did was reach out and close her eyes. And as I drew her eyelids down, the dreams of her seventy-nine years quietly dispersed like a passing summer shower on a shopping street, leaving not a thing behind."

Haruki Murakami Hear the Wind Sing