Authors
Topics
Lists
Pictures
Resources
More about Haruki Murakami
Haruki Murakami Quotes
539 Sourced Quotes
Source
Report...
Memory is like fiction; or else it's fiction that's like memory.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
Death was not the opposite of life. It was already here, within my being, it had always been here, and no struggle would permit me to forget that.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
Painful is the stress when one cannot reproduce or convey vividly to others, however hard he tries, what he's experienced so intensely. In my case, the stronger is the intention to "write about a particular subject in a particular way," the harder it becomes to start writing and to express myself. This stress somewhat resembles the irritation one feels when he cannot describe to another person what he experienced so vividly and realistically in his dreams. All words I use to narrate my feeling of the moment fail incessantly to describe what I wish to, and then they begin to betray me.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
She lived frugally, but her meals were the only things on which she deliberately spent her money. She never compromised on the quality of her groceries, and drank only good-quality wines.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
Some things are forgotten, some things disappear, some things die.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
What do you think? I'm not a starfish or a pepper tree. I'm a living, breathing human being. Of course I've been in love.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
What's more, you're loads better than you think you are. So why is it I get to thinking that way? I puzzled. That's because you're only half-living. she said briskly. The other half is still untapped somewhere.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
That's how stories happen — with a turning point, an unexpected twist. There's only one kind of happiness, but misfortune comes in all shapes and sizes. It's like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
Wasn't it better if they kept this desire to see each other hidden within them, and never actually got together? That way, there would always be hope in their hearts. That hope would be a small, yet vital flame that warmed them to their core— a tiny flame to cup one's hands around and protect from the wind, a flame that the violent winds of reality might easily extinguish.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
But I found that the longer you teach, the more you feel like a total stranger to yourself
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
Can'ttrustpeople. Won'tdoanygood. They'llkillyoueverytime. They'llkilleachother. They'llkilleveryone.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
Whiskey, like a beautiful woman, demands appreciation. You gaze first, then it's time to drink.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
For some reason all the middle-aged women he knew were very efficient.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
If you can't understand it without an explanation, you can't understand it with an explanation.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
Sometimes when I'm with you, I remember things I lost when I was your age. Like I remember the sound of the rain and the smell of the wind.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
Sometimes you're just the sweetest thing. Like Christmas, summer vacation, and a brand-new puppy rolled into one.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
For a long time, she held a special place in my heart. I kept this special place just for her, like a "Reserved" sign on a quiet corner table in a restaurant. Despite the fact that I was sure I'd never see her again.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
It's the real world, full of gaps and inconsistencies and anticlimaxes.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
The rain that fell on the city runs down the dark gutters and empties into the sea without even soaking the ground
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
Losing you is most difficult for me, but the nature of my love for you is what matters. If it distorts into half-truth, then perhaps it is better not to love you. I must keep my mind but loose you.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
The world in books seemed so much more alive to me than anything outside. I could see things I'd never seen before. Books and music were my best friends. I had a couple of good friends at school, but never met anyone I could really speak my heart to.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
I wondered if she was trying to convey something to me, something she could not put into words - something prior to words that she could not grasp within herself and which therefore had no hope of ever turning into words.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
Open your eyes, train your ears, use your head. If a mind you have, then use it while you can.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
Whenever I meet people for the first time, I get them to talk for ten minutes. Then I size them up from the exact opposite perspective of all they've told me. Do you think that's crazy? No, I said, shaking my head, I'd guess your method works quite well.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
Beyond the window, some kind of small, black thing shot across the sky. A bird, possibly. Or it might have been someone's soul being blown to the far side of the world.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
This may be the most important proposition revealed by history: At the time, no one knew what was coming.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
It seems to me, though, that you always understand very well what I can't say very well. Trouble is I end up being even worse at saying things well.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
One last word of advice, though, Mr. Okada, though you may not want to hear this. There are things in this world it is better not to know about. Of course, those are the very things that people most want to know about. It's strange.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
Life is so uncertain: you never know what could happen. One way to deal with that is to keep your pajamas washed.
Haruki Murakami
Source
Report...
They take the circuits out of people's brains that make it possible for them to think for themselves. Their world is like the one that George Orwell depicted in his novel. I'm sure you realize that there are plenty of people who are looking for exactly that kind of brain death. It makes life a lot easier. You don't have to think about difficult things, just shut up and do what your superiors tell you to do.
Haruki Murakami
1
...
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
...
18
Quote of the day
Good authors, too, who once knew better words Now only use four-letter words Writing prose — Anything goes.
Cole Porter
Haruki Murakami
Creative Commons
Born:
January 12, 1949
(age 75)
Bio:
Haruki Murakami is a contemporary Japanese writer. His books and stories have been bestsellers in Japan as well as internationally, with his work being translated into 50 languages and selling millions of copies outside his native country.
Known for:
Norwegian Wood (1987)
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994)
Kafka on the Shore (2002)
Most used words:
time
people
life
love
person
mind
place
heart
matter
feel
kind
keep
day
memories
find
Haruki Murakami on Wikipedia
Suggest an edit or a new quote
Haruki Murakami Quotes
Haruki Murakami Short Quotes
Japanese Novelist Quotes
Novelist Quotes
20th-century Novelist Quotes
Related Authors
Bob Dylan
American Songwriter
Franz Kafka
Czech Author
Philip Roth
American Novelist
Ryū Murakami
Japanese Screenwriter
Banana Yoshimoto
Japanese Author
Featured Authors
Lists
Predictions that didn't happen
If it's on the Internet it must be true
Remarkable Last Words (or Near-Last Words)
Picture Quotes
Confucius
Philip James Bailey
Eleanor Roosevelt
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Popular Topics
life
love
nature
time
god
power
human
mind
work
art
heart
thought
men
day
×
Lib Quotes