I remember Kazuo Ishiguro's polite voice when he called me at my hotel in London around midnight. In his gentle, low voice, he said: "Good evening, this is Kazuo Ishiguro. I am sorry to call you late at night, but I heard you were looking for me." It was in the year 2000, right after Ishiguro was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, a prestigious British literature award, with his novel "When We Were Orphans."
I immediately noticed Ishiguro spoke English with a slight Japanese accent -- perhaps not even an accent, but rather the kind of familiar sounds of English spoken by a Japanese person.
