any art worth learning will certainly reward more or less generously the effort made to study it.” – Murasaki Shikibu, author, poet, novelist (“The Tale of Genji”)

Murasaki Shikibu was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court during the Heian period. She is best known as the author of The Tale of Genji, written in Japanese between about 1000 and 1012