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Haruki Murakami Quotes - Page 15

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How many times have you said, 'This is it. I've finally found my one true love'? And how many times has the reality turned out differently? Paperback romances and fairy tales promote an ideal of a first and only love,

How many times have you said, 'This is it. I've finally found my one true love'? And how many times has the reality turned out differently? Paperback romances and fairy tales promote an ideal of a first and only love, but few of us can claim to have had such uncomplicated good fortune. For most people, the process of finding the perfect partner is one trial and error: breakups, makeups, missed opportunities and misunderstandings. Human love is a fragile creation, and sometimes the smallest thing - the wrong choice of words or a single clumsy gesture - can make love shatter, stall or fade away.

Haruki Murakami
Breakup, Reality, Love Is

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
Heart, Reality, Flames
FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Sep 22, 2015

People want to be bowled over by something special. Nine times out of ten you might strike out, but that tenth time, that peak experience, is what people want. That's what can move the world. That's art.

Haruki Murakami
Art, Moving, People

Kumiko and I felt something for each other from the beginning. It was not one of those strong, impulsive feelings that can hit two people like an electric shock when they first meet, but something quieter and gentler, like two tiny lights traveling in tandem through a vast darkness and drawing imperceptibly closer to each other as they go. As our meetings grew more frequent, I felt not so much that I had met someone new as that I had chanced upon a dear old friend.

Haruki Murakami
Strong, Two, Drawing
Haruki Murakami (2011). “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle”, p.223, Random House

Although I didn't think so at the time, things were a lot simpler in 1969. All you had to do to express yourself was throw rocks at riot police. But with today's sophistication, who's in a position to throw rocks? Who's going to brave what tear gas? C'mon, that's the way it is. Everything is rigged, tied into that massive capital web, and beyond this web there's another web. Nobody's going anywhere. You throw a rock and it'll come right back at you.

Haruki Murakami
Thinking, Rocks, Brave

If you want everything to be nice and straight all the time, then go live in a world made with a triungular ruler.

Haruki Murakami
Nice, World, Want

Killing time is not an easy job.

Haruki Murakami
Time, Jobs, Killing
Haruki Murakami (2011). “Dance Dance Dance”, p.36, Random House

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
Lonely, Loneliness, Bird
FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Apr 10, 2015

"I guess I've been waiting so long I'm looking for perfection. That makes it tough." "Waiting for perfect love?" "No, even I know better than that. I'm looking for selfishness. Like, say I tell you I want to eat strawberry shortcake. And you stop everything you're doing and run out and buy it for me. And you come back out of breath and get down on your knees and hold this strawberry shortcake out to me. And I say I don't want it anymore and throw it out the window. That's what I'm looking for."

Haruki Murakami
Running, Perfect, Long
"Norwegian Wood". Book by Haruki Murakami, 2011.

The light of morning decomposes everything.

Haruki Murakami
Morning, Light

It is not that the meaning cannot be explained. But there are certain meanings that are lost forever the moment they are explained in words.

Haruki Murakami
Forever, Moments, Lost
FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Apr 21, 2012

I'm a coward when it comes to matters of the heart. That is my fatal flaw.

Haruki Murakami
Heart, Coward, Matter

You make do with what you have. As you age you learn even to be happy with what you have.

Haruki Murakami
Age
Haruki Murakami (2011). “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running”, p.86, Random House

Her cry was the saddest sound of orgasm that I had ever heard.

Haruki Murakami
Sound, Cry, Heard

She was a keen observer, a precise user of language, sharp-tongued and funny. She could stir your emotions. Yes, really, that's what she was so good at - stirring people's emotions, moving you. And she knew she had this power...I only realized later. At the time, I had no idea what she was doing to me.

Haruki Murakami
Moving, Ideas, People

Each of us possesses a tangible living soul. The system has no such thing. We must not allow the system to exploit us.

Haruki Murakami
Soul, Tangible, Exploits
Haruki Murakami’s Acceptance Speech for the Jerusalem Award, atticusinjapan.wordpress.com. February 28, 2009.

There has to be pain. That's the rule.

Haruki Murakami
Pain, Chaos

There's a special feeling you get on a veranda that you just can't get anywhere else.

Haruki Murakami
Feelings, Special
"The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle". Book by Haruki Murakami, 1994.

Life is here, death is over there. I am here, not over there.

Haruki Murakami
Life Is

That's gotta be one of the principles behind reality. Accepting things that are hard to comprehend, and leaving them that way.

Haruki Murakami
Reality, Leaving, Principles
Haruki Murakami (2011). “Sputnik Sweetheart”, p.149, Random House

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

Haruki Murakami
Haruki Murakami (2011). “Dance Dance Dance”, p.81, Random House

I stare at her chest. As she breathes, the rounded peaks move up and down like the swell of waves, somehow reminding me of rain falling softly on a broad stretch of sea. I'm the lonely voyager standing on deck, and she's the sea. The sky is a blanket of gray, merging with the gray sea off on the horizon. It's hard to tell the difference between sea and sky. Between voyager and sea. Between reality and the workings of the heart.

Haruki Murakami
Lonely, Rain, Moving

He felt as if his heart had dried up. I needed her he thought. I needed someone like her to fill the void inside me. But I wasn’t able to fill the void inside her. Until the bitter end, the emptiness inside her was hers alone.

Haruki Murakami
Heart, Able, Void

It's a dark, cool, quiet place. A basement in your soul. And that place can sometimes be dangerous to the human mind. I can open the door and enter that darkness, but I have to be very careful. I can find my story there. Then I bring that thing to the surface, into the real world.

Haruki Murakami
Real, Dark, Doors

People need routines. It's like a theme in music. But it also restrictsyour thoughts and actions and limits your freedom. It structures your priorities and in some cases distorts your logic.

Haruki Murakami
People, Priorities, Needs

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