Haruki Murakami Quotes

539 Sourced Quotes

I don't know, there's something about you. Say there's an hourglass: the sand's about to run out. Someone like you can always be counted on to turn the thing over.

Haruki Murakami
In certain areas of my life, I actively seek out solitude. Especially for someone in my line of work, solitude is, more or less, an inevitable circumstance. Sometimes, however, this sense of isolation, like acid spilling out of a bottle, can unconsciously eat away at a person's heart and dissolve it. You could see it, too, as a kind of double-edged sword. It protects me, but at the same time steadily cuts away at me from the inside.

Haruki Murakami
She was, if anything, on the plain side, at least not the type to attract men wherever she went. But there was something in her face that was meant for me alone. Everytime we met, I took a good look at her. And loved what I saw.

Haruki Murakami
Why do people have to be this lonely? What's the point of it all? Millions of people in this world, all of them yearning, looking to others to satisfy them, yet isolating themselves. Why? Was the earth put here just to nourish human loneliness?

Haruki Murakami
I was reduced to pure concept. My flesh had dissolved; my form had dissipated. I floated in space. Liberated of my corporeal being, but without dispensation to go anywhere else.I was adrift in the void. Somewhere across the fine line separating nightmare from reality.

Haruki Murakami
What we call the present is given shape by an accumulation of the past.

Haruki Murakami
With the advent of winter, her eyes seemed to take on a greater transparency, a transparency that lead nowhere. Occassionally, for no particular reason, Naoko would gaze into my eyes as if searching for something. Each time I was filled with odd sensations of lonliness and inadequecy.

Haruki Murakami
Everybody thinks I'm this delicate little girl. But you can't tell a book by it's cover.' To which she added a momentary smile.

Haruki Murakami
And it was the kind of thing that loses the most important nuances when reduced to words. He had never told anyone about it, and he probably never would.

Haruki Murakami
In other words, let's face it: Life is basically unfair. But even in a situation that's unfair, I think it's possible to seek out a kind of fairness. Of course, that might take time and effort. And maybe it won't seem to be worth all that. It's up to each individual to decide whether or not it is.

Haruki Murakami
Results aside, the ability to have complete faith in another human being is one of the finest qualities a person can possess.

Haruki Murakami
Does G get angry because it follows F in the alphabet? Does page 68 in a book start a revolution because it follows 67?

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

Haruki Murakami
No, I don't want your money. The world moves less by money than by what you owe people and what they owe you. I don't like to owe anybody anything, so I keep to myself as much on the lending side as I can.

Haruki Murakami
He does not exist here, with me, but flesh that does not exist will never die, and promises unmade are never broken.

Haruki Murakami
The good thing about writing books is that you can dream while you are awake.

Haruki Murakami
I don't like the realistic style, myself. I prefer a more surrealistic style.

Haruki Murakami
My style, my prose, is very easy to read. It contains a sense of humor, it's dramatic, and it's a page-turner. There's a sort of magic balance between those two factors; perhaps that's another reason for my success.

Haruki Murakami
When I start to write, I don't have any plan at all. I just wait for the story to come. I don't choose what kind of story it is or what's going to happen. I just wait.

Haruki Murakami
If you're going to while away the years, it's far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive then in a fog, and I believe # running helps you to do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that's the essence of running, and a metaphor for life,

Haruki Murakami
I was feeling lonely without her, but the fact that I could feel lonely at all was consolation. Loneliness wasn't such a bad feeling. It was like the stillness of the pin oak after the little birds had flown off.

Haruki Murakami
Of course you got rights, the law's on your side, but sometimes the law takes a long time to kick in and so it gets put in the hands of us poor suckers on duty. You get my drift?

Haruki Murakami
Good style happens in one of two ways: the writer either has an inborn talent or is willing to work herself to death to get it.

Haruki Murakami
The grounds of the place were dominated by several large, old willow trees that towered over the surrounding stone wall and swayed soundlessly in the wind like lost souls.

Haruki Murakami
My point is: in this whole wide world the only person you can depend on is you.

Haruki Murakami
When you're young, you think you can handle anything. By the time you find out otherwise, it's already too late. You got a stocking wrapped around your neck.

Haruki Murakami
Not that running away's going to solve everything. I don't want to rain on your parade or anything, but I wouldn't count on escaping this place if I were you. No matter how far you run. Distance might not solve anything.

Haruki Murakami
I bet the reason people are afraid of going bald is because it makes them think of the end of life. I mean, when your hair starts to thin, it must feel as if your life is being worn away... as if you've taken a giant step in the direction of death, the last Big Consumption.

Haruki Murakami
I probably still haven't completely adapted to the world. I don't know, I feel like this isn't the real world. The people, the scene: they just don't seem real to me.

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

Haruki Murakami