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Haruki Murakami Quotes - Page 29

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It's like the Tibetan Wheel of the Passions. As the wheel turns, the values and feelings on the outer rim rise and fall, shining or sinking into darkness. But true love stays fastened to the axle and doesn't move.

It's like the Tibetan Wheel of the Passions. As the wheel turns, the values and feelings on the outer rim rise and fall, shining or sinking into darkness. But true love stays fastened to the axle and doesn't move.

Haruki Murakami
Moving, Fall, Passion

My arm was not what she needed, but the arm of someone else. My warmth was not what she needed, but the warmth of someone else.

Haruki Murakami
Arms, Needed, Warmth
Haruki Murakami (2011). “Norwegian Wood”, p.35, Random House

Nakata's empty inside... Do you know what it means to be completely empty? Being empty is like a vacant house. An unlocked, vacant house. Anybody can come in, anytime they want. That's what scares me the most

Haruki Murakami
Mean, House, Scare

It's basically impossible for everybody's justice to prevail or everybody's happiness to triumph, so chaos takes over.

Haruki Murakami
Justice, Triumph, Impossible

It's a terrible thing when a person dies, whatever the circumstances. A hole opens up in the world, and we need to pay the proper respects. If we don't, the hole will never be filled in again.

Haruki Murakami
Filled In, Needs, World

Things can be seen better in the darkness," he said, as if he had just seen into her mind. "But the longer you spend in the dark, the harder it becomes to return to the world aboveground where the light is

Haruki Murakami
Dark, Light, Mind
FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Nov 02, 2014

Let the world move along as it pleased. If it had any business with him, it would be sure to tell him.

Haruki Murakami
Moving, Would Be, World
FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Oct 19, 2015

The years nineteen and twenty are a crucial stage in the maturation of character, and if you allow yourself to become warped when you're that age, it will cause you pain when you're older.

Haruki Murakami
Pain, Character, Years
"Norwegian Wood". Book by Haruki Murakami, Random House, pp. 152-153, 2011.

I've been lonely for so long. And I've been hurt so deeply. If only I could have met you again a long time ago, then I wouldn't have had to take all these detours to get here.' Tengo shook his head. 'I don't think so. This way is just fine. This is exactly the right time. For both of us. [...] We needed that much time.... to understand how lonely we really were.

Haruki Murakami
Lonely, Hurt, Thinking

To be able to grasp something of value, sometimes you have to perform seemingly inefficient acts.

Haruki Murakami
Able, Sometimes, Values

Ordinary imperfect people, always choose similarly imperfect people as friends.

Haruki Murakami
People, Ordinary, Imperfect

Listen - God only exists in people's minds. Especially in Japan, God's always been kind of a flexible concept. Look at what happened after the war. Douglas MacArthur ordered the divine emperor to quit being God, and he did, making a speech saying he was just an ordinary person. So after 1946 he wasn't God anymore. That's what Japanese gods are like--they can be tweaked and adjusted. Some American comping on a cheap pipe gives the order and presto change-o--God's no longer God. A very postmodern kind of thing. If you think God's there, He is. If you don't, He isn't.

Haruki Murakami
War, Thinking, Japan
"Kafka On The Shore". Book by Haruki Murakami, www.newyorker.com. 2002.

You're not a kid any more. You have the right to choose your own life. You can start again. If you want a cat, all you have to do is choose a life in which you can have a cat. It's simple. It's your right.

Haruki Murakami
Life, Cat, Kids
"The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel". Book by Haruki Murakami translated by Jay Rubin, 1997.

But I found that the longer you teach, the more you feel like a total stranger to yourself

Haruki Murakami
Stranger, Found, Teach

It's just like sex; when [a book is] finished, it's finished.

Haruki Murakami
Sex, Book, Writing

Stories lie deep in our souls. Stories lie so deep at the bottom of our hearts that they can bring people together on the deepest level. When I write a novel, I go into such depths.

Haruki Murakami
Lying, Writing, Heart

Not that running away's going to solve everything. I don't want to rain on your parade or anything, but I wouldn't count on escaping this place if I were you. No matter how far you run. Distance might not solve anything.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Distance, Rain
FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Mar 21, 2016

I think memory is the most important asset of human beings. It's a kind of fuel; it burns and it warms you. My memory is like a chest: There are so many drawers in that chest, and when I want to be a fifteen-year-old boy, I open up a certain drawer and I find the scenery I saw when I was a boy in Kobe. I can smell the air, and I can touch the ground, and I can see the green of the trees. That's why I want to write a book.

Haruki Murakami
Memories, Book, Writing

I think history is collective memories. In writing, I'm using my own memory, and I'm using my collective memory.

Haruki Murakami
Memories, Writing, Thinking
"What Haruki Murakami talks about". Interview with Heidi Benson, www.sfgate.com. October 26, 2008.

Do you know what ‘Sputnik’ means in Russian? ‘Travelling companion’. I looked it up in a dictionary not long ago. Kind of a strange coincidence if you think about it. I wonder why the Russians gave their satellite that strange name. It’s just a poor little lump of metal, spinning around the Earth.

Haruki Murakami
Mean, Thinking, Spinning Around
Haruki Murakami (2011). “Sputnik Sweetheart”, p.108, Random House

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.

Haruki Murakami
Thinking, Too Late, Necks

If, as the dowager had said, we are nothing but gene carriers, why do so many of us have to lead such strangely shaped lives? Wouldn't our genetic purpose-to transmit DNA-be served just as well if we lived simple lives, not bothering our heads with a lot of extraneous thoughts, devoted entirely to preserving life and procreating? Did it benefit the genes in any way for us to lead such intricately warped, even bizarre, lives?

Haruki Murakami
Simple, Dna, Way

In ancient times, people weren't just male or female, but one of three types: male/male, male/female, female/female. In other words, each person was made out of the components of two people. Everyone was happy with this arrangement and never really gave it much a thought. But then God took a knife and cut everybody in half, right down the middle. So after that the world was divided just into male and female, the upshot being that people spend their time running around trying to locate their missing other half.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Cutting, Knives
"Kafka on the Shore". Book by Haruki Murakami. Chapter Five, "Oshima", 2002.

If we reverse the outer shell and the essence--in other words, consider the outer shell the essence and the essence only the shell--our lives might be a whole lot easier to understand.

Haruki Murakami
Essence, Shells, Might

Ever since time began (when was that, I wonder?), it's been moving ever forward without a moment's rest. And one of the privileges given to those who've avoided dying young is the blessed right to grow old.

Haruki Murakami
Moving, Blessed, Dying
"What I Talk About When I Talk About Running". Book by Haruki Murakami, 2007.

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