Quotes by Haruki Murakami

Me, Ive seen 45 years, and Ive only figured out one thing. Thats this: if a person would just make the effort, theres something to be learned from everything. From even the most ordinary, commonplace things, theres always something you can learn. I read somewhere that they said theres even different philosophies in razors. Fact is, if it werent for that, nobodyd survive.

Snow floated down every once in a while, but it was frail snow, like a memory fading into the distance.

The darkness behind my closed eyelids was like the cloud-covered sky, but the gray was somewhat deeper. Every few minutes, someone would come and paint over the gray with a different-textured gray - one with a touch of gold or green or red. I was impressed with the variety of grays that existed. Human beings were so strange. All you had to do was sit still for ten minutes, and you could see this amazing variety of grays.

Latter-day capitalism. Like it or not, its the society we live in. Even the standard of right and wrong has been subdivided, made sophisticated. Within good, theres fashionable good and unfashionable good, and ditto for bad. Within fashionable good, theres formal and then theres casual; theres hip, theres cool, theres trendy, theres snobbish. Mix n match. Like pulling on a Missoni sweater over Trussardi slacks and Pollini shoes, you can now enjoy hybrid styles of morality. Its the way of the world -- philosophy starting to look more and more like business administration.

This is one more piece of advice I have for you: dont get impatient. Even if things are so tangled up you cant do anything, dont get desperate or blow a fuse and start yanking on one particular thread before its ready to come undone. You have to realize its going to be along process and that youll work on things slowly, one at a time.

Loving another person is a wonderful thing, and if that love is sincere, no one ends up tossed into a labyrinth. You have to have more faith in yourself.

I dont go out of my way to make friends, thats all.

Its easy to talk big, but the important thing is whether or not you clean up the shit.

People have their own reasons for dying. It might look simple, but it never is. Its just like a rock. Whats above ground is only a small part of it. But if you start pulling, it keeps coming and coming. The human mind dwells deep in darkness. Only the person himself knows the real reason, and maybe not even then.

Everything was too sharp and clear, so that I could never tell where to start- the way a map that shows too much can sometimes be useless.

Like most novelists, I like to do exactly the opposite of what Im told. Its in my nature as a novelist. Novelists cant trust anything they havent seen with their own eyes or touched with their own hands. (Jerusalem Prize acceptance speech, JERUSALEM POST, Feb. 15, 2009)

Only by learning the truth—whatever that truth might be—could people be given the right kind of power.

If you think God’s there, He is. If you don’t, He isn’t. And if that’s what God’s like, I wouldn’t worry about it.

The Boss is an honorable man. After the Lord, the most godly person Ive ever met.Youve met God?Certainly. I telephone Him every night.

In the name of God, they stole her time and her freedom, putting shackles on her heart. They preached about Gods kindness, but preached twice as much about his wrath and intolerance.

Latter-day capitalism. Like it or not, its the society we live in. Even the standard of right and wrong has been subdi-vided, made sophisticated. Within good, theres fashionable good and unfash-ionable good, and ditto for bad. Within fashionable good, theres formal and then theres casual; theres hip, theres cool, theres trendy, theres snobbish. Mix n match. Like pulling on a Missoni sweater over Trussardi slacks and Pollini shoes, you can now enjoy hybrid styles of morality. Its the way of the world—philosophy starting to look more and more like business administration.Although I didnt think so at the time, things were a lot simpler in 1969. All you had to do to express yourself was throw rocks at riot police. But with todays sophistication, whos in a position to throw rocks? Whos going to brave what tear gas? Cmon, thats the way it is. Everything is rigged, tied into that massive capital web, and beyond this web theres another web. Nobodys going anywhere. You throw a rock and itll come right back at you.

Es decir..., lo que yo creo es que el hombre piensa en el significado de la vida porque sabe con certeza que va morir algún día. (...) Nadie sabe lo que va a ocurrir. Por eso nosotros, para evolucionar necesitamos la muerte.

But hell, youve gotta work with what youve got.

With my eyes closed, I would touch a familiar book and draw its fragrance deep inside me. This was enough to make me happy.

In his or her own way, everyone I saw before me looked happy. Whether they were really happy or just looked it, I couldnt tell. But they did look happy on this pleasant early afternoon in late September, and because of that I felt a kind of loneliness new to me, as if I were the only one here who was not truly part of the scene.