Haruki Murakami Quotes

539 Sourced Quotes

Memory is like fiction; or else it's fiction that's like memory.

Haruki Murakami
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
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
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
Some things are forgotten, some things disappear, some things die.

Haruki Murakami
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
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
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
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
But I found that the longer you teach, the more you feel like a total stranger to yourself

Haruki Murakami
Can'ttrustpeople. Won'tdoanygood. They'llkillyoueverytime. They'llkilleachother. They'llkilleveryone.

Haruki Murakami
Whiskey, like a beautiful woman, demands appreciation. You gaze first, then it's time to drink.

Haruki Murakami
For some reason all the middle-aged women he knew were very efficient.

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

Haruki Murakami
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
Sometimes you're just the sweetest thing. Like Christmas, summer vacation, and a brand-new puppy rolled into one.

Haruki Murakami
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
It's the real world, full of gaps and inconsistencies and anticlimaxes.

Haruki Murakami
The rain that fell on the city runs down the dark gutters and empties into the sea without even soaking the ground

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

Haruki Murakami
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
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
This may be the most important proposition revealed by history: At the time, no one knew what was coming.

Haruki Murakami
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
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
Life is so uncertain: you never know what could happen. One way to deal with that is to keep your pajamas washed.

Haruki Murakami
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