Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Quotes

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

The better you were able to imagine what you wanted to imagine, the farther you could flee from reality.

Spending plenty of time on something can be the most sophisticated form of revenge.

A person’s destiny is something you look back at afterwards, not something to be known in advance.

We were young, and we had no need for prophecies. Just living was itself an act of prophecy.

The passage of time will usually extract the venom of most things and render them harmless

Living like an empty shell is not really living, no matter how many years it may go on. The heart and flesh of an empty shell give birth to nothing more than the life of an empty shell.

When you are used to the kind of life -of never getting anything you want- you stop knowing what it is you want.

I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. But it was not until much later that I was able to get any real sleep. In a place far away from anyone or anywhere, I drifted off for a moment.

In truly deep darkness, all kinds of strange things were possible.

I feel as if the world is listening for my next thought. But I can't think of anything. Sorry, but I just can't think of anything.

Hatred is like a tow-edged sword. When you cut the other person, you cut yourself.

Certain kinds of information are like smoke: they work their way into people's eyes and minds whether sought out or not, and with no regard to personal preference.

Where there's guts, there's curiosity, and where there's curiosity, there's guts.

The little things are important, Mr. Wind-Up Bird,

In response to my father-in-law's view, I offered no opinion. He was not looking for my opinion. He had merely been spouting his belief, a conviction that would remain unchanged for all eternity.

I was living for one thing only, and that was to confirm my own lack of feeling.

I know exactly what I'm doing, but I just can't stop. That's my greatest weakness.

If something came out of the deal, it couldn’t make things any worse for us than they already were, I thought. But I couldn’t have been more wrong. Hell has no true bottom.

I was the chain that bit into my ankle, and I was the ruthless guard that never slept.

I am afraid to die, though, ' I whispered to myself. These turned out to be my last words. They were not very impressive words, but it was too late to change them.

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

I was a vacant room. Inside, the music produces only a dry, hollow echo.

Living like an empty shell is not really living, no matter how many years it might go on

Reality spilled out into the alley like water from an overfilled bowl - as sound, as smell, as image, as plea, as response.

Money had no name, of course. And if it did have a name, it would no longer be money. What gave money its true meaning was its dark-night namelessness, its breathtaking interchangeability.

From the moment of my birth, I lived with pain at the center of my life. My only purpose in life was to find a way to coexist with intense pain.

I guess time doesn't flow in order, does it - A, B, C, D? It just sort of goes where it feels like going.

Tell me, Doctor, are you afraid of death?""I guess it depends on how you die.

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