Quotes from Haruki Murakami

It's my motto for life. 'Walk slowly; drink lots of water.

Reality's just the accumulation of ominous prophecies come to life. All you have to do is open a newspaper on any given day to weigh the good news versus the bad news, and you'll see what I mean.

I just wanted to write something about running, but I realized that to write about my running is to write about my writing. It's a parallel thing in me.

I'm a writer, not a professional runner. It's fun and it helps me write. I need powerful concentration.

My heroes don't have anything special. They have something to tell other people but they don't know how, so they talk to themselves.

Before I became a writer, I was running a jazz bar in the center of Tokyo, which means that I worked in filthy air all the time late into the night. I was very excited when I started making a living out of my writing, and I decided, 'I will live in nothing but an absolutely healthy way.'

When you come out of the storm you won't be the same person that walked in. That's what the storm is all about.

Be fearless, be brave, be bold, love yourself

I am worrying about my country. I feel I have a responsibility as a novelist to do something.

I've been running a full marathon every year for more than 20 years, and my record is getting worse. Getting older, getting worse. It's natural.

Not everything was lost in the flow of time

Time is too conceptual. Not that it stops us from filling it in. So much so, we can't even tell whether our experiences belong to time or to the world of physical things.

When you're young, you think you can handle anything. By the time you find out otherwise, it's already too late. You got a stocking wrapped around your neck.

If a person remains tense for a long time he might not notice it himself, but it's like his nerves are a piece of rubber that has been stretched out. It's hard to go back to the original shape.

My priority is my books, at least at this point. What I have to do is write the narrative of this time.

And everywhere, infinite options, infinite possibilities. An infinity, and at the same time, zero. We try to scoop it all up in our hands, and what we get is a handful of zero. That's the city

I used to think the years would go by in order, that you get older one year at a time. But it's not like that. It happens overnight.

This uneasiness comes over me from time to time, and I feel as if I've somehow been pieced together from two different puzzles.

I'm me, and at the same time not me. That's what it felt like. A very still, quiet feeling.

I may not look it, but I can be a very patient guy. And killing time is one of my specialities.

Huge organizations and me don't get along. They're too inflexible, waste too much time, and have too many stupid people.

Of course you got rights, the law's on your side, but sometimes the law takes a long time to kick in and so it gets put in the hands of us poor suckers on duty. You get my drift?

Time moves in it special way in the middle of the night.

sometimes I think I've got this hard kernel in my heart, and nothing much can get inside it. I doubt if I can really love anybody.