Haruki Murakami Quotes

You don't have to judge the whole world by your own standards. Not everybody is like you, you know.

She was hearing everything that went on in his heart, like a person who can trace a map with his fingertip and conjure up vivid, living scenery.

Concentration is one of the happiest things in my life.

I have no models in Japanese literature. I created my own style, my own way.

Until the bitter end, the emptiness inside her was hers alone.

Writers have to keep on writing if they want to mature, like caterpillars endlessly chewing on leaves.

I move, therefore I am.

I like to read books. I like to listen to music.

When I start to write, I don't have any plan at all. I just wait for the story to come.

It is sometimes necessary for each person. Fill up with delicious food, get drunk, sing loudly and chat frivolously.

Distance might not solve anything, no matter how far you run.

Everything in life is a metaphor.

One listless day followed another, with nothing to distinguish one from the next. You could have changed the order and no one would have noticed.

Even castles in the sky can do with a fresh coat of paint.

Life might just be an absurd, even crude, chain of events and nothing more.

With luck, it might even snow for us.

As long as there's such a thing as time, everybody's damaged in the end, changed into something else. It always happens, sooner or later.

I didn't have much to say to anybody but kept to myself and my books. With my eyes closed, I would touch a familiar book and draw it's fragrance deep inside me. This was enough to make me happy.

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

Ever since that happened to me, I haven't been able to give myself to anyone in this world.

Only the dead stay seventeen forever.

Have books ‘happened’ to you? Unless your answer to that question is ‘yes,’ I’m unsure how to talk to you

No matter what they wish for, no matter how far they go, people can never be anything but themselves. That's all.

You know what I should do?" Hoshino asked excited. "Of course," the cat said. "What'd I tell you? Cats know everything. Not like dogs.

Like flowers scattered in a storm, a man's life is a long farewell.

But what seems like a reasonable distance to one person might feel too far to somebody else.

Nobody's easier to fool, than the person who is convinced that he is right.

I collect records. And cats. I don't have any cats right now. But if I'm taking a walk and I see a cat, I'm happy.

I don't think of myself as an artist. I'm just a guy who can write.

The whole terrible fight occured in the area of imagination. That is the precise location of our battlefield. It is there, that we experience our victories and defeats.

People leave strange little memories of themselves behind when they die.

You've already decided what you're going to do, and all that's left is to set the wheels in motion. I mean, it's your life. Basically, you gotta go with what you think is right.

Open your eyes, train your ears, use your head. If a mind you have, then use it while you can.

...most people in the world don't really use their brains to think. And people who don't think are the ones who don't listen to others.

I find myself thinking about my ongoing existence as a human being and the path that lies ahead of me. Though of course these thoughts lead to but one place - death.

I said nothing for a time, just ran my fingertips along the edge of the human-shaped emptiness that had been left inside me.

But metaphors help eliminate what separates you and me.

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

Generally, people who are good at writing letters have no need to write letters. They've got plenty of life to lead inside their own context.

It seemed to me that this world has a serious shortage of both logic and kindness.

His heart, like mine, was ticking off the time allotted to his small restless body.

Why do I act like this, agreeing when I really disagree, letting people force me to do things I don't want to do?

Overhead, the two moons worked together to bathe the world in a strange light.

If you think about it, an unfair society is a society that makes it possible for you to exploit your abilities to the limit.

What we needed were not words and promises but a steady accumulation of small realities.

All of us are imperfect human beings living in an imperfect world.

Is this what it means to go back to square one? Most likely. He had nothing left to lose, other than his life.

When there's nothing to do, you do nothing slowly and intently.

I'll never see them again. I know that. And they know that. And knowing this, we say farewell.

My heroes don't have anything special. They have something to tell other people but they don't know how, so they talk to themselves.