Quotes by Haruki Murakami

Something will work out tomorrow, I thought. And if not, then tomorrow Ill do some thinking. Ob—la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on.

Once you pass a certain age, life becomes noting more than a process of continual loss. Things that are important to your life begin to slip out of your grasp, one after another, like a comb losing teeth. And the only things that come to take their place are worthless imitations. Your physical strength, your hopes, your dreams, your ideals, your convictions, all meaning, or, then again, the people you love: one by one, they fade away. Some announce their departure before they leave, while others just disappear all of a sudden without warning one day. And once you lose them you can never get them back. Your search for replacement never goes well. It’s all very painful- as painful as actually being cut with a knife.

I dont know much about the world, but I do know one thing for sure. If Im pessimistic, then the adults in this world who are not pessimistic are a bunch of idiots.

It was a small room with dim light coming in the window, reminiscent of old Polish films.

I want to write stories that are different from the ones Ive written so far, Junpei thought: I want to write about people who dream and wait for the night to end, who long for the light so they can hold the ones they love.

I never trust people with no appetite. Its like theyre always holding something back on you.

Curiosity can bring guts out of hiding at times, maybe even get them going. But curiosity usually evaporates. Gust have to go for the long haul. Curiositys like a fun friend you cant really trust. It turns you on and then it leaves you to make it on your own - with whatever guts you can muster

Guns are like cars: you can trust a good used one better than one thats brand new.

I might have been afraid that if I really loved someone and needed her, one day she might suddenly disappear without a word, and Id be left all alone.

Maybe you didnt want to get married, or get tied down?Tsukuru shook his head. No, I dont think that was it. Im the sort of person who craves stability.

He sometimes wondered if she had become involved with him just so that she could cry in someones arms. Maybe she cant cry alone, and thats why she needs me.

It wasnt like there was some obvious change. Actually, the problem was more a lack of change. Nothing about her had changed - the way she spoke, her clothes, the topics she chose to talk about, her opinions - they were all the same as before. Their relationship was like a pendulum gradually grinding to a halt, and he felt out of synch.

I need to learn not just to forget but to forgive.

So thats how we live our lives. No matter how deep and fatal the loss, no matter how important the thing thats stolen from us--thats snatched right out of our hands--even if we are left completely changed, with only the outer layer of skin from before, we continue to play out our lives this way, in silence. We draw ever nearer to the end of our allotted span of time, bidding it farewell as it trails off behind. Repeating, often adroitly, the endless deeds of the everyday. Leaving behind a feeling of immeasurable emptiness.

Everybody has some one thing they do not want to lose, began the man. You included. And we are professionals at finding out that very thing. Humans by necessity must have a midway point between their desires and their pride. Just as all objects must have a center of gravity. This is something we can pinpoint. Only when it is gone do people realize it even existed.

April ended and May came along, but May was even worse than April. In the deepening spring of May, I had not choice but to recognize the trembling of my heart. It usually happened as the sun was going down. In the pale evening gloom, when the soft fragrance of magnolias hung in air, my heart would swell without warning, and tremble, and and lurch with a stab of pain. I would try clamping my eyes shut and gritting my teeth, and wait for it to pass. And it would pass - but slowly, taking its own time, and leaving a dull ache behind.

Each memory was now the shadow of a shadow of a shadow. The only thing that remained tangible to him was the sense of absence.

For darkness terrifies. It swallows you, warps you, nullifies you. Who alive can possibly profess confidence in darkness? In the dark, you cant see.

We keep moving. And as we do, the things around us, well, they disappear.

I would never see her again, except in memory. She was here, and now shes gone. There is no middle ground. Probably is a word that you may find south of the border. But never, ever west of the sun.