# Klara and the Sun
Author:: Kazuo Ishiguro
## Highlights
> You were greedy, Klara.’ ‘I don’t believe you,’ I said, but I was no longer so sure. ([Location 76](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=76))
> ‘Sometimes,’ she said, ‘at special moments like that, people feel a pain alongside their happiness. I’m glad you watch everything so carefully, Klara.’ ([Location 336](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=336))
> ‘Let me tell you something, Klara. Children make promises all the time. They come to the window, they promise all kinds of things. They promise to come back, they ask you not to let anyone else take you away. It happens all the time. But more often than not, the child never comes back. Or worse, the child comes back and ignores the poor AF who’s waited, and instead chooses another. It’s just the way children are. You’ve been watching and learning so much, Klara. Well, here’s another lesson for you. Do you understand?’ ‘Yes, Manager.’ ‘Good. So let’s have no more of this.’ She touched my arm, then turned away. ([Location 498](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=498))
> I understood then that if she failed to join the Mother for the quick coffee, there was the danger of loneliness creeping into her day, no matter what other events filled it. ([Location 706](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=706))
> Not only had I learned that ‘changes’ were a part of Josie, and that I should be ready to accommodate them, I’d begun to understand also that this wasn’t a trait peculiar just to Josie; that people often felt the need to prepare a side of themselves to display to passers-by – as they might in a store window – and that such a display needn’t be taken so seriously once the moment had passed. ([Location 1183](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=1183))
> Until recently, I didn’t think that humans could choose loneliness. That there were sometimes forces more powerful than the wish to avoid loneliness.’ ([Location 2126](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=2126))
> ‘I don’t blame Paul. He’s entitled to his feelings. After Sal, he said we shouldn’t risk it. So what if Josie doesn’t get lifted? Plenty of kids aren’t. But I could never have that for Josie. I wanted the best for her. I wanted her to have a good life. You understand, Klara? I called it, and now Josie’s sick. Because of what I decided. ([Location 2919](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=2919))
> ‘And that could be difficult, no? Something beyond even your wonderful capabilities. Because an impersonation wouldn’t do, however skillful. You’d have to learn her heart, and learn it fully, or you’ll never become Josie in any sense that matters.’ ([Location 2999](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=2999))
> ‘Hope,’ he said. ‘Damn thing never leaves you alone.’ ([Location 3044](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=3044))
> ‘I think I hate Capaldi because deep down I suspect he may be right. That what he claims is true. That science has now proved beyond doubt there’s nothing so unique about my daughter, nothing there our modern tools can’t excavate, copy, transfer. That people have been living with one another all this time, centuries, loving and hating each other, and all on a mistaken premise. A kind of superstition we kept going while we didn’t know better. ([Location 3081](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=3081))
> Perhaps it’s because I’m an expert engineer, as you put it. This is why I find it so hard to be civil around people like Capaldi. When they do what they do, say what they say, it feels like they’re taking from me what I hold most precious in this life. ([Location 3088](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=3088))
> ‘I’m fine, Dad. I’m just not like a show, okay? I can’t sparkle and entertain all day. Sometimes I just want to sit and chill out.’ ([Location 3169](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=3169))
> Then she said: ‘Yes. If I’m honest, Chrissie, the answer’s yes. Even after seeing what it’s brought you. I feel…I feel I didn’t do my best for him. I feel I didn’t even think it through, the way you and Paul did. I was somewhere else in my mind and I just let the moment go past. Perhaps that’s what I regret more than anything else. That I never loved him enough to make a proper decision one way or the other.’ ([Location 3288](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=3288))
> Manager. Only then did it occur to me that though there were no customers but us, all the tables and seats had been carefully made ready in case others came in. I thought then that this Diner Manager might be lonely, or at least that he was lonely while he was in his diner, illuminated on both sides to anyone passing by in the night. ([Location 3385](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=3385))
> ‘Sufficiently generous and liberal to be open to all students of high caliber, even some who haven’t benefited from genetic editing.’ ([Location 3407](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=3407))
> ‘Perhaps all humans are lonely. At least potentially.’ ([Location 3585](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=3585))
> On this question of being lifted. She wants you to know she wouldn’t wish it any other way. If she had the power to do it again, and this time it was up to her, she says she’d do exactly what you did and you’ll always be the best mother she could have. ([Location 3852](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=3852))
> They’re afraid because they can’t follow what’s going on inside any more. They can see what you do. They accept that your decisions, your recommendations, are sound and dependable, almost always correct. But they don’t like not knowing how you arrive at them. That’s where it comes from, this backlash, this prejudice. ([Location 4023](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=4023))
> There was something very special, but it wasn’t inside Josie. It was inside those who loved her. That’s why I think now Mr Capaldi was wrong and I wouldn’t have succeeded. ([Location 4150](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=4150))
---
Title: Klara and the Sun
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
Tags: readwise, books
date: 2024-01-30
---
# Klara and the Sun
Author:: Kazuo Ishiguro
## AI-Generated Summary
None
## Highlights
> You were greedy, Klara.’ ‘I don’t believe you,’ I said, but I was no longer so sure. ([Location 76](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=76))
> ‘Sometimes,’ she said, ‘at special moments like that, people feel a pain alongside their happiness. I’m glad you watch everything so carefully, Klara.’ ([Location 336](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=336))
> ‘Let me tell you something, Klara. Children make promises all the time. They come to the window, they promise all kinds of things. They promise to come back, they ask you not to let anyone else take you away. It happens all the time. But more often than not, the child never comes back. Or worse, the child comes back and ignores the poor AF who’s waited, and instead chooses another. It’s just the way children are. You’ve been watching and learning so much, Klara. Well, here’s another lesson for you. Do you understand?’ ‘Yes, Manager.’ ‘Good. So let’s have no more of this.’ She touched my arm, then turned away. ([Location 498](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=498))
> I understood then that if she failed to join the Mother for the quick coffee, there was the danger of loneliness creeping into her day, no matter what other events filled it. ([Location 706](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=706))
> Not only had I learned that ‘changes’ were a part of Josie, and that I should be ready to accommodate them, I’d begun to understand also that this wasn’t a trait peculiar just to Josie; that people often felt the need to prepare a side of themselves to display to passers-by – as they might in a store window – and that such a display needn’t be taken so seriously once the moment had passed. ([Location 1183](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=1183))
> Until recently, I didn’t think that humans could choose loneliness. That there were sometimes forces more powerful than the wish to avoid loneliness.’ ([Location 2126](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=2126))
> ‘I don’t blame Paul. He’s entitled to his feelings. After Sal, he said we shouldn’t risk it. So what if Josie doesn’t get lifted? Plenty of kids aren’t. But I could never have that for Josie. I wanted the best for her. I wanted her to have a good life. You understand, Klara? I called it, and now Josie’s sick. Because of what I decided. ([Location 2919](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=2919))
> ‘And that could be difficult, no? Something beyond even your wonderful capabilities. Because an impersonation wouldn’t do, however skillful. You’d have to learn her heart, and learn it fully, or you’ll never become Josie in any sense that matters.’ ([Location 2999](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=2999))
> ‘Hope,’ he said. ‘Damn thing never leaves you alone.’ ([Location 3044](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=3044))
> ‘I think I hate Capaldi because deep down I suspect he may be right. That what he claims is true. That science has now proved beyond doubt there’s nothing so unique about my daughter, nothing there our modern tools can’t excavate, copy, transfer. That people have been living with one another all this time, centuries, loving and hating each other, and all on a mistaken premise. A kind of superstition we kept going while we didn’t know better. ([Location 3081](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=3081))
> Perhaps it’s because I’m an expert engineer, as you put it. This is why I find it so hard to be civil around people like Capaldi. When they do what they do, say what they say, it feels like they’re taking from me what I hold most precious in this life. ([Location 3088](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=3088))
> ‘I’m fine, Dad. I’m just not like a show, okay? I can’t sparkle and entertain all day. Sometimes I just want to sit and chill out.’ ([Location 3169](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=3169))
> Then she said: ‘Yes. If I’m honest, Chrissie, the answer’s yes. Even after seeing what it’s brought you. I feel…I feel I didn’t do my best for him. I feel I didn’t even think it through, the way you and Paul did. I was somewhere else in my mind and I just let the moment go past. Perhaps that’s what I regret more than anything else. That I never loved him enough to make a proper decision one way or the other.’ ([Location 3288](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=3288))
> Manager. Only then did it occur to me that though there were no customers but us, all the tables and seats had been carefully made ready in case others came in. I thought then that this Diner Manager might be lonely, or at least that he was lonely while he was in his diner, illuminated on both sides to anyone passing by in the night. ([Location 3385](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=3385))
> ‘Sufficiently generous and liberal to be open to all students of high caliber, even some who haven’t benefited from genetic editing.’ ([Location 3407](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=3407))
> ‘Perhaps all humans are lonely. At least potentially.’ ([Location 3585](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=3585))
> On this question of being lifted. She wants you to know she wouldn’t wish it any other way. If she had the power to do it again, and this time it was up to her, she says she’d do exactly what you did and you’ll always be the best mother she could have. ([Location 3852](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=3852))
> They’re afraid because they can’t follow what’s going on inside any more. They can see what you do. They accept that your decisions, your recommendations, are sound and dependable, almost always correct. But they don’t like not knowing how you arrive at them. That’s where it comes from, this backlash, this prejudice. ([Location 4023](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=4023))
> There was something very special, but it wasn’t inside Josie. It was inside those who loved her. That’s why I think now Mr Capaldi was wrong and I wouldn’t have succeeded. ([Location 4150](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08B7V6CQ8&location=4150))