Quotes from Haruki Murakami

I'm forever realizing things too late.

No matter how shallow and dull things might get, this life is worth living.

There are probably things people are better off not hearing … But they can't go forever without hearing them. When the time comes, even if they stop their ears up tight, the air will vibrate and invade a person's heart. You can't prevent it. If you don't like it, then the only solution is to live in a vacuum.

I wasn't particularly afraid of death itself. As Shakespeare said, die this year and you don't have to die the next. All quite simple, if you want to look at it that way. Life's no piece of cake, mind you, but the recipe's my own to fool with. Hence I can live with it. But after I'm dead, can't I just lie in peace? Those Egyptian pharoahs had a point, wanting to shut themselves up inside pyramids.

If, through some kind of reincarnation, it were possible to be reborn as Ushikawa's clothing, with a guarantee of rare glory in the next rebirth, I would still not want to do it.

For some reason all the middle-aged women he knew were very efficient.

Things cultivated over such a long time don't just vanish into nothingness.

writing was like breathing.

Love songs sweet enough to rot your teeth.

I think I just don't like names. Basically, I can't see what's wrong with calling me 'me' or you 'you' or us 'us' or them 'them.

That's why you need to grab whatever chance you have for happiness where you find it, and not worry too much about other people. My experience tells me that we get no more than two or three such chances in a lifetime, and if we let them go, we regret it for the rest of our lives.

Cuando la realidad te golpea es como si de pronto, en alta mar, te arrojasen por la borda en plena noche

Is it possible to become friends with a butterfly?.. It is if you become a part of nature. You suppress your presence as a human being, stay very still, and convince yourself that you are a tree or grass or flower. It takes time, but once the butterfly lets it guard down, you can become friends quiet naturally.

I don't know, I feel like this isn't the real world. The people, the scene: they just don't seem real to me.

My words did not seem to reach her. Or, if they did, she was unable to grasp their meaning.

Y si lo piensas, verás que, aunque creamos que tomamos decisiones equivocadas, seguramente todo habría acabado como acabó. Habríamos llegado al mismo punto en que estamos.

Cold or not, God is Present

There are three reasons I failed. Not enough training. Not enough training. And not enough training.

It's kind of embarrassing to put this into words, she said, but I want to stay friends with you, Junpei. Not just for now, but even after we get older. A lot older. I love Takatsuki, but I need you, too, in a different way. Does that make me selfish?

Like most novelists, I like to do exactly the opposite of what I'm told. It's in my nature as a novelist. Novelists can't trust anything they haven't seen with their own eyes or touched with their own hands. (Jerusalem Prize acceptance speech, JERUSALEM POST, Feb. 15, 2009)

Confidence; as a teenager? Because I knew what I loved. I loved to read; I loved to listen to music; and I love cats. Those three things. So, even though I was an only kid, I could be happy because I knew what I loved. Those three things haven't changed from my childhood. I know what I love, still, now. That's a confidence. If you don't know what you love, you are lost.

Nakata's empty inside. I finally understand that. Nakata's like a library without a single book. It wasn't always like that. I used to have books inside me. For a long time I couldn't remember, but now I can. I used to be normal, just like everybody else. But something happened and I ended up like a container with nothing inside.

But from the first time I met Ame, I was drawn right into her. I couldn't resist her. And I knew it was happening. I knew it wasn't going to come my way again, not in this life. That's when I decided - if I go with her, there'll come a time that I'll regret it. But if I don't go with her, I'll be losing the key to my existence. Have you ever felt that way about something?

Words left their mouths to hang frozen in midair.