Quotes from Haruki Murakami

Reading was like an addiction; I read while I ate, on the train, in bed until late at night, in school, where I'd keep the book hidden so I could read during class. Before long I bought a small stereo and spent all my time in my room, listening to jazz records. But I had almost no desire to talk to anyone about the experience I gained through books and music. I felt happy just being me and no one else. In that sense I could be called a stack-up loner.

In dreams begins responsiblities.

Memory is so crazy! It's like we've got these drawers crammed with tons of useless stuff. Meanwhile, all the really important things we just keep forgetting, one after the other.

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.

But you know Hajime, some feelings cause us pain because they remain.

I may be the type who manages to grab all the pointless things in life but lets the really important things slip away.

Like you're riding a train at night across some vast plain, and you catch a glimpse of a tiny light in a window of a farmhouse. In an instant it's sucked back into the darkness behind and vanishes. But if you close your eyes, that point of light stays with you, just barely for a few moments.

People leave traces of themselves where they feel most comfortable, most worthwhile.

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.

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

The others in the dorm thought I wanted to be a writer, because I was always alone with a book, but I had no such ambition. There was nothing I wanted to be.

Results aside, the ability to have complete faith in another human being is one of the finest qualities a person can possess.

When the fire goes out, you'll start feeling the cold. You'll wake up whether you want to or not.

I have been told I've got a darkish personality. A few times. Takahashi swings his trombone case from his right shoulder to his left. Then he says, It's not as if our lives are divided simply into light and dark. There's shadowy middle ground. Recognizing and understanding the shadows is what a healthy intelligence does. And to acquire a healthy intelligence takes a certain amount of time and effort. I don't think you have a particularly dark character.

Death is not the opposite of life but an innate part of it. By living our lives, we nurture death.

People whose freedom is taken away always end up hating somebody.

Look at the rain long enough, with no thoughts in your head, and you gradually feel your body falling loose, shaking free of the world of reality. Rain has the power to hypnotize.

When I wake up, my pillow's cold and damp with tears. But tears for what? I have no idea.

Such wounds to the heart will probably never heal. But we cannot simply sit and stare at our wounds forever.

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.

Some things are forgotten, some things disappear, some things die.

Even castles in the sky can do with a fresh coat of paint.

No matter how quiet and conformist a person's life seems, there's always a time in the past when they reached an impasse. A time when they went a little crazy. I guess people need that sort of stage in their lives.

Understanding is but the sum of misunderstandings.