Haruki Murakami Quotes
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Only the dead stay seventeen forever.
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No matter how far you travel, you can never get away from yourself.
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Maybe the only thing I can definitely say about is this: That’s life. Maybe the only thing we can do is accept it, without really knowing what’s going on.
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Unclose your mind. You are not a prisoner. You are a bird in flight, searching the skies for dreams.
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Life is not like water. Things in life don't necessarily flow over the shortest possible route.
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Some things are forgotten, some things disappear, some things die.
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Your work should be an act of love, not a marriage of convenience.
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Taking crazy things seriously is a serious waste of time.
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Our responsibility begins with our imagination.
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There are some things about myself I can’t explain to anyone. There are some things I don’t understand at all. I can’t tell what I think about things or what I’m after. I don’t know what my strengths are or what I’m supposed to do about them. But if I start thinking about these things in too much detail the whole thing gets scary. And if I get scared I can only think about myself. I become really self-centered, and without meaning to, I hurt people. So I’m not such a wonderful human being.
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I'm tired of living unable to love anyone. I don't have a single friend - not one. And, worst of all, I can't even love myself. Why is that? Why can't I love myself? It's because I can't love anyone else. A person learns how to love himself through the simple acts of loving and being loved by someone else. Do you understand what I am saying? A person who is incapable of loving another cannot properly love himself.
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This was something sure to be crammed full of warm secrets, like an antique clock built when peace filled the world.
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What makes us the most normal," said Reiko, "is knowing that we're not normal.
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Letters are just pieces of paper. Burn them, and what stays in your heart will stay; keep them, and what vanishes will vanish.
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There are many things we only see clearly in retrospect.
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She was seriously in love, but she never made demands.
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Maybe working on the little things as dutifully and honestly as we can is how we stay sane when the world is falling apart.
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I wonder what ants do on rainy days?
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There's no such thing as perfect writing, just like there's no such thing as perfect despair.
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I've translated a lot of American literature into Japanese, and I think that what makes a good translator is, above all, a feel for language and also a great affection for the work you're translating. If one of those elements is missing the translation won't be worth much.
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Time flows in strange ways on Sundays, and sights become mysteriously distorted.
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I dream. Sometimes I think that’s the only right thing to do. To dream, to live in the world of dreams. But it doesn’t last forever. Wakefulness always comes to take me back.
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What’s more, you’re loads better than you think you are.” “So why is it I get to thinking that way?” I puzzled. “That’s because you’re only half-living.” she said briskly. “The other half is still untapped somewhere.
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How about Proust's In Search of Lost Time?" Tamaru asked. "If you've never read it this would be a good opportunity to read the whole thing." "Have you read it?" "No, I haven't been in jail, or had to hide out for a long time. Someone once said unless you have those kinds of opportunities, you can't read the whole of Proust.