Authors — Quotes

Haruki Murakami Quotes: 98

If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.
Norwegian Wood
Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.
Kafka on the Shore
I think you still love me, but we can’t escape the fact that I’m not enough for you. I knew this was going to happen. So I’m not blaming you for falling in love with another woman. I’m not angry, either. I should be, but I’m not. I just feel pain. A lot of pain. I thought I could imagine how much this would hurt, but I was wrong.
South of the Border, West of the Sun
Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Whatever it is you're seeking won't come in the form you're expecting.
And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.
What happens when people open their hearts?" "They get better.
Norwegian Wood
If you remember me, then I don't care if everyone else forgets.
Kafka on the Shore
Why do people have to be this lonely? What's the point of it all? Millions of people in this world, all of them yearning, looking to others to satisfy them, yet isolating themselves. Why? Was the earth put here just to nourish human loneliness?
Sputnik Sweetheart
Nobody likes being alone that much. I don't go out of my way to make friends, that's all. It just leads to disappointment.
Norwegian Wood
Anyone who falls in love is searching for the missing pieces of themselves. So anyone who's in love gets sad when they think of their lover. It's like stepping back inside a room you have fond memories of, one you haven't seen in a long time.
I dream. Sometimes I think that's the only right thing to do.
Sputnik Sweetheart
Don't feel sorry for yourself. Only assholes do that.
Norwegian Wood
No matter how much suffering you went through, you never wanted to let go of those memories.
But who can say what's best? That's why you need to grab whatever chance you have of happiness where you find it, and not worry about other people too much. My experience tells me that we get no more than two or three such chances in a life time, and if we let them go, we regret it for the rest of our lives.
Norwegian Wood
Sometimes when I look at you, I feel I'm gazing at a distant star. It's dazzling, but the light is from tens of thousands of years ago.Maybe the star doesn't even exist any more. Yet sometimes that light seems more real to me than anything.
South of the Border, West of the Sun
It's like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.
Kafka on the Shore
But I didn't understand then. That I could hurt somebody so badly she would never recover. That a person can, just by living, damage another human being beyond repair.
I was always hungry for love. Just once, I wanted to know what it was like to get my fill of it -- to be fed so much love I couldn't take any more. Just once.
Norwegian Wood
Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: 24 Stories
here she is, all mine, trying her best to give me all she can. How could I ever hurt her? But I didn’t understand then. That I could hurt somebody so badly she would never recover. That a person can, just by living, damage another human being beyond repair.
South of the Border, West of the Sun
Is it possible, in the final analysis, for one human being to achieve perfect understanding of another?We can invest enormous time and energy in serious efforts to know another person, but in the end, how close can we come to that person's essence? We convince ourselves that we know the other person well, but do we really know anything important about anyone?
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
If you can love someone with your whole heart, even one person, then there's salvation in life. Even if you can't get together with that person.
1Q84
Despite your best efforts, people are going to be hurt when it's time for them to be hurt.
Norwegian Wood
Every one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That’s part of what it means to be alive.
Kafka on the Shore
In everybody’s life there’s a point of no return. And in a very few cases, a point where you can’t go forward anymore. And when we reach that point, all we can do is quietly accept the fact. That’s how we survive.
Kafka on the Shore
Of course it hurt that we could never love each other in a physical way. We would have been far more happy if we had. But that was like the tides, the change of seasons--something immutable, an immovable destiny we could never alter. No matter how cleverly we might shelter it, our delicate friendship wasn't going to last forever. We were bound to reach a dead end. That was painfully clear.
Sputnik Sweetheart
I have a million things to talk to you about. All I want in this world is you. I want to see you and talk. I want the two of us to begin everything from the beginning.
Norwegian Wood
No truth can cure the sorrow we feel from losing a loved one. No truth, no sincerity, no strength, no kindness can cure that sorrow. All we can do is see it through to the end and learn something from it, but what we learn will be no help in facing the next sorrow that comes to us without warning.
Norwegian Wood
Most everything you think you know about me is nothing more than memories.
A Wild Sheep Chase
Being with her I feel a pain, like a frozen knife stuck in my chest. An awful pain, but the funny thing is I'm thankful for it. It's like that frozen pain and my very existence are one.The pain is an anchor, mooring me here.
Kafka on the Shore
Time weighs down on you like an old, ambiguous dream. You keep on moving, trying to sleep through it. But even if you go to the ends of the earth, you won't be able to escape it. Still, you have to go there- to the edge of the world. There's something you can't do unless you get there.
Kafka on the Shore
Sometimes I get real lonely sleeping with you.
A Wild Sheep Chase
Life is not like water. Things in life don't necessarily flow over the shortest possible route.
1Q84
There's no such thing as perfect writing, just like there's no such thing as perfect despair.
Hear the Wind Sing
People leave strange little memories of themselves behind when they die.
Norwegian Wood
If you think God’s there, He is. If you don’t, He isn’t. And if that’s what God’s like, I wouldn’t worry about it.
Kafka on the Shore
Even chance meetings are the result of karma… Things in life are fated by our previous lives. That even in the smallest events there’s no such thing as coincidence.
Kafka on the Shore
When I open them, most of the books have the smell of an earlier time leaking out between the pages - a special odor of the knowledge and emotions that for ages have been calmly resting between the covers. Breathing it in, I glance through a few pages before returning each book to its shelf.
Kafka on the Shore
The sense of tragedy - according to Aristotle - comes, ironically enough, not from the protagonist's weak points but from his good qualities. Do you know what I'm getting at? People are drawn deeper into tragedy not by their defects but by their virtues....[But] we accept irony through a device called metaphor. And through that we grow and become deeper human beings.
Kafka on the Shore
For a long time, she held a special place in my heart. I kept this special place just for her, like a "Reserved"sign on a quiet corner table in a restaurant. Despite the fact that I was sure I'd never see her again.
South of the Border, West of the Sun
When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.
Kafka on the Shore
That’s how stories happen — with a turning point, an unexpected twist. There’s only one kind of happiness, but misfortune comes in all shapes and sizes. It’s like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.
Kafka on the Shore
I've been lonely for so long. And I've been hurt so deeply. If only I could have met you again a long time ago, then I wouldn't have had to take all these detours to get here.'Tengo shook his head. 'I don't think so. This way is just fine. This is exactly the right time. For both of us. [...] We needed that much time.... to understand how lonely we really were.
1Q84
As we go through life we gradually discover who we are, but the more we discover, the more we lose ourselves.
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
Life doesn't require ideals. It requires standards of action.
Norwegian Wood
It's easy to forget things you don't need anymore.
Kafka on the Shore
Hey, Mr. Nakata. Gramps. Fire! Flood! Earthquake! Revolution! Godzilla's on the loose! Get up!
Kafka on the Shore
Wasn't it better if they kept this desire to see each other hidden within them, and never actually got together? That way, there would always be hope in their hearts. That hope would be a small, yet vital flame that warmed them to their core-- a tiny flame to cup one's hands around and protect from the wind, a flame that the violent winds of reality might easily extinguish.
1Q84
Maybe it's just hiding somewhere. Or gone on a trip to come home. But falling in love is always a pretty crazy thing. It might appear out of the blue and just grab you. Who knows — maybe even tomorrow.
Sputnik Sweetheart