Haruki Murakami Quotes

I realize full well how hard it must be to go on living alone in a place from which someone has left you, but there is nothing so cruel in this world as the desolation of having nothing to hope for.

I'm a coward when it comes to matters of the heart. That is my fatal flaw.

I have this strange feeling that I'm not myself anymore. It's hard to put into words, but I guess it's like I was fast asleep, and someone came, disassembled me, and hurriedly put me back together again. That sort of feeling.

Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back. That's part of what it means to be alive. But inside our heads - at least that's where I imagine it - there's a little room where we store those memories. A room like the stacks in this library. And to understand the workings of our own heart we have to keep on making new reference cards. We have to dust things off every once in awhile, let in fresh air, change the water in the flower vases. In other words, you'll live forever in your own private library.

You are a beautiful person, Doctor. Clearheaded. Strong. But you seem always to be dragging your heart along the ground. From now on, little by little, you must prepare yourself to face death. If you devote all of your future energy to living, you will not be able to die well. You must begin to shift gears, a little at a time. Living and dying are, in a sense, of equal value.

Memories and thoughts age, just as people do. But certain thoughts can never age, and certain memories can never fade.

Don't pointless things have a place, too, in this far-from-perfect world?

In a place far away from anyone or anywhere, I drifted off for a moment.

What we seek is some kind of compensation for what we put up with.

The sky grew darker, painted blue on blue, one stroke at a time, into deeper and deeper shades of night.

The light of morning decomposes everything.

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.

Whether you cut it off
or someone else cuts it off
if you put your neck on the stone pillow
believe it—you will turn to dust.

Don't feel sorry for yourself. Only assholes do that.

If you can't understand it without an explanation, you can't understand it with an explanation.