12 Best Kazuo Ishiguro Quotes

“I don't know how you were supposed to ever get your life started, if you were never told anything about your own life.”

Kathy reflects on the lack of information given to the students about their origins and future.

“We all complete. Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through, or feel we've had enough time.”

Kathy's final thoughts on the nature of their lives and the inevitability of completion.

“It's something that's been on my mind a lot lately. The thing is, we're all different. We're not the same.”

Tommy's attempt to articulate the uniqueness of each person, even among clones.

“The problem, as I see it, is that you've been told and not told.”

Miss Emily explains the paradoxical way the students were given information about their fate.

“I was thinking about the rubbish and the dust, and how it was like a metaphor for something.”

Kathy reflects on the Norfolk trip and the idea of lost things, including their own lost futures.

“We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all.”

Miss Emily reveals the purpose of the art collection at Hailsham.

“The great butlers are great by virtue of their ability to inhabit their professional role and inhabit it to the utmost; they will not be shaken out by external events, however surprising, alarming or vexing.”

Stevens reflects on the nature of professional dignity in the prologue, defining the ideal butler.

“Indeed, why should I not admit it? At that moment, my heart was breaking.”

Stevens recalls the moment Miss Kenton told him she was leaving Darlington Hall to marry another man.

“I cannot even be sure that I have done a good day's work.”

Stevens's final line in the novel, as he sits on a bench at the end of his journey, questioning the value of his life's work.

“The evening is the best part of the day. You've done your day's work. Now you can put your feet up and enjoy it.”

A stranger on the pier tells Stevens this, prompting his final reflection on the 'remains of the day.'

“I have been thinking about this for some time, and I have come to the conclusion that I should have been a butler.”

Stevens's father, in a moment of confusion before his death, says this to Stevens, highlighting the generational devotion to service.

“It is sometimes a mistake to be too eager to please.”

Stevens reflects on his interactions with Mr. Farraday, realizing that his attempts to be witty may have been misguided.