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

• I'm often asked what I think about as I run. Usually the people who ask this have never run long distances themselves. I always ponder the question. What exactly do I think about when I'm running? I don't have a clue.

  What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

• With my eyes closed, I would touch a familiar book and draw its fragrance deep inside me. This was enough to make me happy.

  Norwegian Wood

• If you're young and talented, it's like you have wings.

  What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

• People die all the time. Life is a lot more fragile than we think. So you should treat others in a way that leaves no regrets. Fairly, and if possible, sincerely. It's too easy not to make the effort, then weep and wring your hands after the person dies.

  Dance Dance Dance

• Love can rebuild the world, they say, so everything's possible when it comes to love.

  Kafka on the Shore

• When you are used to the kind of life -of never getting anything you want- you stop knowing what it is you want.

  The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

• People fall in love without reason, without even wanting to. You can't predict it. That's love.

  Dance Dance Dance

• There weren't any curtains in the windows, and the books that didn't fit into the bookshelf lay piled on the floor like a bunch of intellectual refugees.

  Sputnik Sweetheart

• Some things in life are too complicated to explain in any language.

  Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

• A person learns how to love himself through the simple acts of loving and being loved by someone else.

  1Q84

• Holding this soft, small living creature in my lap this way, though, and seeing how it slept with complete trust in me, I felt a warm rush in my chest. I put my hand on the cat's chest and felt his heart beating. The pulse was faint and fast, but his heart, like mine, was ticking off the time allotted to his small body with all the restless earnestness of my own.

  The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

• Time expands, then contracts, all in tune with the stirrings of the heart.

  Kafka on the Shore

• This is one more piece of advice I have for you: don't get impatient. Even if things are so tangled up you can't do anything, don't get desperate or blow a fuse and start yanking on one particular thread before it's ready to come undone. You have to realize it's going to be along process and that you'll work on things slowly, one at a time.

  Norwegian Wood

• Quizás aun no te comprenda. Pero, con un poco de tiempo, llegaré a entenderte. Y no habrá nadie en el mundo que te comprenda mejor que yo.

• Open your eyes, train your ears, use your head. If a mind you have, then use it while you can.

  Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

• Losing you is most difficult for me, but the nature of my love for you is what matters. If it distorts into half-truth, then perhaps it is better not to love you. I must keep my mind but loose you.

  Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

• People soon get tired of things that aren't boring, but not of what is boring.

  Kafka on the Shore

• Whether you take the doughnut hole as a blank space or as an entity unto itself is a purely metaphysical question and does not affect the taste of the doughnut one bit.

  A Wild Sheep Chase

• It just happens to be the way that I'm made. I have to write things down to feel I fully comprehend them.

  Norwegian Wood

• Tell me, Doctor, are you afraid of death?" "I guess it depends on how you die.

  The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

• When someone is trying very hard to get something, they don't. And when they're running away from something as hard as they can, it usually catches up with them.

  Kafka on the Shore

• The thoughts that occur to me while I’m running are like clouds in the sky. Clouds of all different sizes. They come and they go, while the sky remains the same sky always. The clouds are mere guests in the sky that pass away and vanish, leaving behind the sky.

  What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

• Writing novels is much the same. You gather up bones and make your gate, but no matter how wonderful the gate might be, that alone doesn't make it a living breathing novel. A story is not something of this world. A real story requires a kind of magical baptism to link the world on this side with the world on the other side.

  Sputnik Sweetheart

• Everything has boundaries. The same holds true with thought. You shouldn't fear boundaries, but you should not be afraid of destroying them. That's what is most important if you want to be free: respect for and exasperation with boundaries.

  Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

• You're wrong. The mind is not like raindrops. It does not fall from the skies, it does not lose itself among other things. If you believe in me at all, then believe this: I promise you I will find it. Everything depends on this." "I believe you,"she whispers after a moment. "Please find my mind.

  Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

• My biggest fault is that the faults I was born with grow bigger each year.

  A Wild Sheep Chase

• I don’t know what it means to live.

  Kafka on the Shore

• Those were strange days, now that I look back at them. In the midst of life, everything revolved around death.

  Norwegian Wood

• I want to write about people who dream and wait for the night to end, who long for the light so they can hold the ones they love.

  After the Quake

• We truly believed in something back then, and we knew we were the kind of people capable of believing in something - with all our hearts. And that kind of hope will never simply vanish.

  Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

• Generally, people who are good at writing letters have no need to write letters. They've got plenty of life to lead inside their own context.

  A Wild Sheep Chase

• People have their own reasons for dying. It might look simple, but it never is. It's just like a rock. What's above ground is only a small part of it. But if you start pulling, it keeps coming and coming. The human mind dwells deep in darkness. Only the person himself knows the real reason, and maybe not even then.

  Dance Dance Dance

• If she did experience sex--or something close to it--in high school, I'm sure it would have been less out of sexual desire or love than literary curiosity.

  Sputnik Sweetheart

• I don't go out of my way to make friends, that's all.

  Norwegian Wood

• Me, I've seen 45 years, and I've only figured out one thing. That's this: if a person would just make the effort, there's something to be learned from everything. From even the most ordinary, commonplace things, there's always something you can learn. I read somewhere that they said there's even different philosophies in razors. Fact is, if it weren't for that, nobody'd survive.

  Pinball, 1973

• It's a dark, cool, quiet place. A basement in your soul. And that place can sometimes be dangerous to the human mind. I can open the door and enter that darkness, but I have to be very careful. I can find my story there. Then I bring that thing to the surface, into the real world.

• In his or her own way, everyone I saw before me looked happy. Whether they were really happy or just looked it, I couldn't tell. But they did look happy on this pleasant early afternoon in late September, and because of that I felt a kind of loneliness new to me, as if I were the only one here who was not truly part of the scene.

  Norwegian Wood

• Wherever there's hope there's a trial.

  1Q84

• Everything was too sharp and clear, so that I could never tell where to start- the way a map that shows too much can sometimes be useless.

  Norwegian Wood

• When I was little, I had this science book. There was a section on 'What would happen to the world if there was no friction?' Answer: 'Everything on earth would fly into space from the centrifugal force of revolution.' That was my mood.

  Dance Dance Dance

• From the moment of my birth, I lived with pain at the center of my life. My only purpose in life was to find a way to coexist with intense pain.

  The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

• This is what it means to live on. When granted hope, a person uses it as fuel, as a guidepost to life. It is impossible to live without hope.

  1Q84

• But hell, you've gotta work with what you've got.

  1Q84

• Human beings are ultimately nothing but carriers-passageways- for genes. They ride us into the ground like racehorses from generation to generation. Genes don't think about what constitutes good or evil. They don't care whether we are happy or unhappy. We're just means to an end for them. The only thing they think about is what is most efficient for them.

  1Q84

• You know what I should do?"Hoshino asked excited. "Of course,"the cat said. "What'd I tell you? Cats know everything. Not like dogs.

  Kafka on the Shore

• Let your body work until it is spent, but keep your mind for yourself.

  Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

• Snow floated down every once in a while, but it was frail snow, like a memory fading into the distance.

  The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

• I don't have a thing,"Tengo said, "except my soul." "Sounds like a job for Mephistopheles,"she said.

  1Q84 BOOK 1