Murakami Quotes
As if a great creature had grown old without being able to express its feelings. Not that it didn't know how to express them, but rather it didn't know what to express.
Each "way of thinking" has its own shape and color, which wax and wane like the moon.
Hatred is like a tow-edged sword. When you cut the other person, you cut yourself.
People leave traces of themselves where they feel most comfortable, most worthwhile.
But still, no matter how much time passes, no matter what takes place in the interim, there are some things we can never assign to oblivion, memories we can never rub away.
There are some things we can never assign to oblivion, memories we can never rub away. They remain with us forever, like a touchstone.
I wasn’t able to be that person for you, and I did a terrible thing. I feel awful about it. But there was something wrong between us from the start, as if we’d done the buttons up wrong.
All the same, writing honestly is very difficult. The more I try to be honest, the farther my words sink into darkness.
He decided not to ask for details. Better to avoid exposing his ignorance even further.
I wonder why people you have to meet have to be such liars. They lie as if their lives depended on it.
A moderate silence ensued. A neutral-to-slightly-positive silence. True, silence is still silence, except when you think about it too much.
It was a stillness so profound one had to adjust one’s hearing to it.....The silence seemed to be trying to tell him something about itself.
I shouted into the phone, but there was no reply. Silence floated up from the receiver like smoke from the mouth of a gun.
Sometimes I just get tired. I get headaches, and I just lose track. I mean, it's like which is me and which is the role? Where's the line between me and my shadow?
My words did not seem to reach her. Or, if they did, she was unable to grasp their meaning.
I don't know, it's stupid being 20, " she said. "I'm just not ready. It feels weird. Like somebody's pushing me from behind.
I don't deserve a girl like Hatsumi, " Nagasawa once said to me. I had to agree with him.
Energies expended on sideshows, never on the main event. Where the hell was the main event? Was there a main event?
If you have to choose between something that has form and something that doesn't, go for the one without form. That's my rule.
People do change. And no matter how close we once were, and how much we opened up to each other, maybe neither of us know anything substantial about the other.
People do change. And no matter how close we once were, and how much we opened up to each other, maybe neither if us know anything substantial about the other.
I'm the scratchy stuff on the side of the matchbox. But that's fine with me. I don't mind at all. Better to be a first-class matchbox than a second-class match.
The conclusion of things is the good. The good is, in other words, the conclusion at which all things arrive. Let's leave doubt for tomorrow, " Komatsu said. "That is the point.
Nobody chooses to evolve. It's like floods and avalanches and earthquakes. You never know what's happening until they hit, then it's too late.
I love you, " I said to her. "From the bottom of my heart. I don't ever want to let you go again. But there's nothing I can do. I can't make a move.""Because of her?"I nodded.
Closing your eyes isn't going to change anything. Nothing's going to disappear just because you can't see what's going on. In fact, things will even be worse the next time you open your eyes.
Our faces were no more than ten inches apart, but she was light years away from me.
That's what we all do : endlessly take the long way around.
At the same time that 'I' am the content of a relation, 'I' am also that which does the relating.
Certain kinds of information are like smoke: they work their way into people's eyes and minds whether sought out or not, and with no regard to personal preference.
Hey, you know that thing Dostoyevesky wrote on gambling? It's like that. When you're surrounded by endless possibilities, one of the hardest things you can do is pass them up.
To wit, existence is communication and communication is existence.
Civilization is communication. When that which should be expressed and transmitted is lost, civilization comes to an end.
Like boarding a train running parallel. That's what disappearing is.
You know, Junpei, everything in the world has its reasons for doing what it does.
Making up for lost time?" "Yes, " I say. "A lot of things were stolen from my childhood. Lots of important things. And now I have to get them back." "In order to keep on li
Making up for lost time?""Yes, " I say. "A lot of things were stolen from my childhood. Lots of important things. And now I have to get them back." "In order to keep on living."I
Like dry ground welcoming the rain, he let the solitude, silence, and loneliness soak in.
Perhaps this was the wisdom with which a child in her position survived: by minimizing her wounds—staying as small as possible, as nearly transparent as possible.
The people who build high, strong fences are the ones who survive the best. You deny that reality only at the risk of being driven into the wilderness yourself.
Like someone excitedly relating a story, only to find the words petering out, the path gets narrower the further I go, the undergrowth taking over.
Where there's guts, there's curiosity, and where there's curiosity, there's guts.
Grandfather always said school's a place where they take sixteen years to wear down your brain. Grandfather hardly went to school either.