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Haruki Murakami Quotes - Page 16

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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

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
Men, Looks, Faces
Haruki Murakami (2011). “South Of The Border, West Of The Sun”, p.59, Random House

People with dark souls have nothing but dark dreams. People with really dark souls do nothing but dream.

Haruki Murakami
Dream, Dark, People

The answer is dreams. Dreaming on and on. Entering the world of dreams and never coming out. Living in dreams for the rest of time.

Haruki Murakami
Inspiring, Dream, Sputnik
FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Mar 26, 2015

Things like that happen all the time in this great big world of ours. It's like taking a boat out on a beautiful lake on a beautiful day and thinking both the sky and the lake are beautiful. So stop eating yourself up alive. Things will go where they're supposed to go if you just let them take their natural course.

Haruki Murakami
Beautiful, Thinking, Lakes

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
Book, Doe, Pages
Haruki Murakami (2011). “Kafka On The Shore”, p.190, Random House

Everybody has some one thing they do not want to lose," began the man. "You included. And we are professionals at finding out that very thing. Humans by necessity must have a midway point between their desires and their pride. Just as all objects must have a center of gravity. This is something we can pinpoint. Only when it is gone do people realize it even existed.

Haruki Murakami
Pride, Men, People
FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Nov 24, 2015

There had to be something wrong with my life. I should have been born a Yugoslavian shepherd who looked up at the Big Dipper every night.

Haruki Murakami
Peace, Night, Should Have
Haruki Murakami (1993). “Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel”, Vintage

Math is like water. It has a lot of difficult theories, of course, but its basic logic is very simple. Just as water flows from high to low over the shortest possible distance, figures can only flow in one direction. You just have to keep your eye on them for the route to reveal itself. That’s all it takes. You don’t have to do a thing. Just concentrate your attention and keep your eyes open, and the figures make everything clear to you. In this whole, wide world, the only thing that treats me so kindly is math.

Haruki Murakami
Distance, Eye, Math

Judging the mistakes of strangers is an easy thing to do - and it feels pretty good.

Haruki Murakami
Mistake, Judging, Stranger
Haruki Murakami (2011). “Sputnik Sweetheart”, p.84, Random House

You don’t get it, do you?" I said. “It’s not a question of ‘what then’. Some people get a kick out of reading railroad timetables and that’s all they do all day. Some people make huge model boats out of matchsticks. So what’s wrong if there happens to be one guy in the world who enjoys trying to understand you?

Haruki Murakami
Reading, People, Guy

What was lost was lost. There was no retrieving it, however you schemed, no returning to how things were, no going back.

Haruki Murakami
Lost
Haruki Murakami (1993). “Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel”, Vintage

Then she took my hand and touched it to the wound beside her eye. I caressed the half-inch scar. As I did so, the waves of her consciousness pulsed through my fingertips and into me - a delicate resonance of longing. Probably someone should take this girl in his arms and hold her tight, I thought. Probably someone other than me. Someone qualified to give her something. "Goodbye, Mr. Wind-Up Bird. See you again sometime.

Haruki Murakami
Girl, Goodbye, Eye
"The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle". Book by Haruki Murakami, October 10, 2011.

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.

Haruki Murakami
Heart, Maps, Vivid
FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Jun 19, 2016

I don't think jealousy has much of a connection with real, objective conditions. Like if you're fortunate you're not jealous, but if life hasn't blessed you, you are jealous. Jealousy doesn't work that way. It's more like a tumor secretly growing inside us that gets bigger and bigger, beyond all reason. Even if you find out it's there, there's nothing you can do to stop it.

Haruki Murakami
Real, Blessed, Jealous

There were plenty of women around who dressed smartly, and plenty more who dressed to impress, but this girl was different. Totally different. She wore her clothing with such utter naturalness and grace that she could have been a bird that had wrapped itself in a special wind as it made ready to fly off to another world. He had never seen a woman who wore her clothes with such apparent joy. And the clothes themselves looked as if, in being draped on her body, they had won new life for themselves.

Haruki Murakami
Girl, Wind, Clothes

And her sleep was too long and deep for that:so deep that she left her normal reality behind.

Haruki Murakami
Sleep, Reality, Long

Nothing in the real world is as beautiful as the illusions of a person about to lose consciousness.

Haruki Murakami
Beautiful, Running, Real
Haruki Murakami (2011). “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running”, p.66, Random House

That’s what love’s all about. You’re the only one having those wonderful feelings, but you have to go it alone as you wander through the dark your mind and body have to bear it all. All by yourself.

Haruki Murakami
Dark, Feelings, Mind

But this thing, whatever it was, this mistlike something, hung there inside my body like a certain kind of potential. I wanted to give it a name, but the word refused to come to mind. I’m terrible at finding the right words for things. I’m sure Tolstoy would have been able to come up with exactly the right word

Haruki Murakami
Names, Giving, Mind
Haruki Murakami (1994). “The Elephant Vanishes”, Vintage

A regular wind-up toy world this is, I think. Once a day the wind-up bird has to come and wind the springs of this world. Alone in this fun house, only I grow old, a pale softball of death swelling inside me. Yet even as I sleep somewhere between Saturn and Uranus, wind-up birds everywhere are busy at work fulfilling their appointed rounds.

Haruki Murakami
Softball, Fun, Spring
Haruki Murakami (1994). “The Elephant Vanishes”, Vintage

...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.

Haruki Murakami
Thinking, People, Brain
Haruki Murakami (2011). “1Q84:”, p.118, Random House

sometimes I think I've got this hard kernel in my heart, and nothing much can get inside it. I doubt if I can really love anybody.

Haruki Murakami
Heart, Thinking, Doubt

At times like this, adults need a drink

Haruki Murakami
Adults, Needs, Drink

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
Girl, Book, Thinking
Haruki Murakami (2011). “Norwegian Wood”, p.24, Random House

When a writer develops a story, he is confronted with a poison that is inside him. If you don't have that poison, your story will be boring and uninspired. It's like fugu: The flesh of the pufferfish is extremely tasty, but the roe, the liver, the heart can be lethally toxic.

Haruki Murakami
Heart, Toxic, Poison

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