How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"We've known each other forever," she said. "I can hardly remember not knowing you. It's hard to remember the days before you. I don't even know if there were any." (14.70)
This is Hatsue speaking to Ishmael inside their beloved hiding place, the cedar tree. In this moment, Hatsue is trying to reconcile her strong feelings for Ishmael with a gnawing sense that she might not actually love him. She looks at their shared history—a history that blots out memories of anything that preceded it—to fight her doubts.
Quote #5
He had come home from the war and seen in his own eyes the disturbed empty reaches he'd seen in the eyes of other soldiers he'd known. They did not so much seem to stare right through things as to stare past the present state of the world into a world that was permanently in the distance for them and at the same time more immediate than the present. (11.3)
Kabuo is thinking about the war and its impact on him. Like many other characters who experienced combat, he expresses not being completely able to live in the present, given what he experienced in wartime (and can't forget).
Quote #6
The courtroom was empty except for Ishmael Chambers, who sat in the gallery with the look on his face of a man willing to wait forever. (22.13)
Ishmael is paralyzed by his memories throughout the novel; apparently, he can often be found staring off into space thinking about Hatsue. This paralysis is a big problem for him; as his mother remarks, he hasn't really been able to live his life since he returned from the war. Of course, his mother chalks it up to his war experience, not knowing that Hatsue has a ton to do with it.