Quotes by Haruki Murakami

“As a writer, I felt it necessary to raise the alarm that a rampant, clandestine and unlawful trade in original manuscripts exists.”

“Original manuscripts are private information. Like personal letters, there are parts I dont want other people to see.”

“In principle, ownership of handwritten documents lies with the author. A large number of my manuscripts have been leaked and are now missing. These are stolen items of sorts, because they were taken without permission and sold for financial gain.”

I think you still love me, but we can’t escape the fact that I’m not enough for you. I knew this was going to happen. So I’m not blaming you for falling in love with another woman. I’m not angry, either. I should be, but I’m not. I just feel pain. A lot of pain. I thought I could imagine how much this would hurt, but I was wrong.

If you remember me, then I dont care if everyone else forgets.

Anyone who falls in love is searching for the missing pieces of themselves. So anyone whos in love gets sad when they think of their lover. Its like stepping back inside a room you have fond memories of, one you havent seen in a long time.

Sometimes when I look at you, I feel Im gazing at a distant star. Its dazzling, but the light is from tens of thousands of years ago.Maybe the star doesnt even exist any more. Yet sometimes that light seems more real to me than anything.

I was always hungry for love. Just once, I wanted to know what it was like to get my fill of it -- to be fed so much love I couldnt take any more. Just once.

If you can love someone with your whole heart, even one person, then theres salvation in life. Even if you cant get together with that person.

Is it possible, in the final analysis, for one human being to achieve perfect understanding of another?We can invest enormous time and energy in serious efforts to know another person, but in the end, how close can we come to that persons essence? We convince ourselves that we know the other person well, but do we really know anything important about anyone?

here she is, all mine, trying her best to give me all she can. How could I ever hurt her? But I didn’t understand then. That I could hurt somebody so badly she would never recover. That a person can, just by living, damage another human being beyond repair.

Despite your best efforts, people are going to be hurt when its time for them to be hurt.

And it came to me then. That we were wonderful traveling companions but in the end no more than lonely lumps of metal in their own separate orbits. From far off they look like beautiful shooting stars, but in reality theyre nothing more than prisons, where each of us is locked up alone, going nowhere. When the orbits of these two satellites of ours happened to cross paths, we could be together. Maybe even open our hearts to each other. But that was only for the briefest moment. In the next instant wed be in absolute solitude. Until we burned up and became nothing.

I have a million things to talk to you about. All I want in this world is you. I want to see you and talk. I want the two of us to begin everything from the beginning.

Being with her I feel a pain, like a frozen knife stuck in my chest. An awful pain, but the funny thing is Im thankful for it. Its like that frozen pain and my very existence are one.

Most things are forgotten over time. Even the war itself, the life-and-death struggle people went through is now like something from the distant past. We’re so caught up in our everyday lives that events of the past are no longer in orbit around our minds. There are just too many things we have to think about everyday, too many new things we have to learn. 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. They remain with us forever, like a touchstone.

Im tired of living unable to love anyone. I dont have a single friend - not one. And, worst of all, I cant even love myself. Why is that? Why cant I love myself? Its because I cant love anyone else. A person learns how to love himself through the simple acts of loving and being loved by someone else. Do you understand what I am saying? A person who is incapable of loving another cannot properly love himself.

Memory is a funny thing. When I was in the scene, I hardly paid it any mind. I never stopped to think of it as something that would make a lasting impression, certainly never imagined that eighteen years later I would recall it in such detail. I didnt give a damn about the scenery that day. I was thinking about myself. I was thinking about the beautiful girl walking next to me. I was thinking about the two of us together, and then about myself again. It was the age, that time of life when every sight, every feeling, every thought came back, like a boomerang, to me. And worse, I was in love. Love with complications. The scenery was the last thing on my mind.

For a long time, she held a special place in my heart. I kept this special place just for her, like a Reserved sign on a quiet corner table in a restaurant. Despite the fact that I was sure Id never see her again.

Sometimes I get real lonely sleeping with you.