Murakami Quotes

The dead will always be dead, but we have to go on living.

Genius or fool, you don't live in the world alone. You can hide underground or you can build a wall around yourself, but somebody's going to come along and screw up the works.

But if you peeled away the ornamental egos that she had built, there was only an abyss of nothingness and the intense thirst that came with it.

Things may look different to you than they did before. I've had that experience myself. But don't let appearances fool you. There's only one reality.

I’ve never once thought about how I was going to die,” she said. “I can’t think about it. I don’t even know how I’m going to live.

At the entrance to the original tower, there is a stone into which Jung carved some words with his own hand: 'Cold or not, God is present.

Whoa!" he says with a smile. The wrinkles at the corners of his eyes deepen. "Chicken salad a la George Orwell!

It is a lonely life sometimes, like throwing a stone into the deep darkness. It might hit something, but you can’t see it. The only thing you can do is to guess, and to believe.

Problem is, once I sit at my desk and put all these down on paper. I realize something vital is missing. It doesn't crystallize - no crystals, just pebbles. And I'm not transported anywhere.

If there’s something I can’t do but want to, I won’t relax until I’m able to do it.

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

That was the rule. Break one of my rules once, and I’m bound to break many more.

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

I think I'll stay alive here a bit longer, and see with my own eyes what's going to happen. I can still die after that - it won't be too late. Probably.

I don't know how many good books I still have in me; I hope there are another four or five.

Reaching the finish line, never walking, and enjoying the race. These three, in this order, are my goals.

Cell phones are so convenient that they're an inconvenience.

Perhaps I'm just too painstaking a type of person, but I can't grasp much of anything without putting down my thoughts in writing.

Whenever I write a novel, music just sort of naturally slips in (much like cats do, I suppose).

It is hard to be an individual in Japan.

When I am writing, I do not distinguish between the natural and supernatural. Everything seems real. That is my world, you could say.

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

I'm not a fast thinker, but once I am interested in something, I am doing it for many years.

Most near-future fictions are boring. It's always dark and always raining, and people are so unhappy.

A fortunate author can write maybe twelve novels in his lifetime.

I had my jazz club and I had enough money. So I didn't have to write for my living.

I used to run a full marathon in three hours and 25 or 26 minutes. Not any more.

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

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.

I often dream about the Dolphin Hotel.

It was a short one-paragraph item in the morning edition.

I was thirty-seven then, strapped in my seat as the huge 747 plunged through dense cloud cover on approach to the Hamburg airport.

This person, this self, this me, finally, was made somewhere else. Everything had come from somewhere else, and it would all go somewhere else. I was nothing but a pathway for the person known as me.

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

The faintest gleam of their lost memories glimmered for the briefest moment in their hearts.

If I'm going to merely ramble, maybe I should just snuggle under the warm covers, think of Miu, and play with myself.

Animals that not only move by their own free will and share feelings with people but also possess sight and hearing qualify as deserving of names.

Waiting for your answer is one of the most painful things I have ever been through. At least let me know whether or not I hurt you.

You said you're going far away," Tamaru said. "How far away are we talking about?" "It's a distance that can't be measured." "Like the distance that separates one person's heart from another's.

Writing talent is similar to the art of chatting up a girl. You can improve to a certain degree through practice, but basically you are either born with it or you aren't.

The facts and techniques or whatever they teach you in class isn't going to be veryuseful in the real world, that's for sure.

As long as possible, I would really like to complete one marathon per year. Though my time has been slowing down as I get older, it has become a very important part of my life.

The honour of physical decline is waiting, and you have to get used to that reality.

Everything. Things you lost. Things you’re gonna lose. Everything. Here’s where it all ties together.

I just feel pain. A lot of pain. I thought I could imagine how much this would hurt but I was wrong.

What gave money its true meaning was its dark-night namelessness, its breathtaking interchangeability.

I'm not human. I'm a piece of machinery. I don't need to feel a thing. Just forge on ahead.

Writing a long novel is like survival training. Physical strength is as necessary as artistic sensitivity.

Most of what I know about writing I've learned through running every day.

While they're still alive, people can become ghosts.