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Haruki Murakami Quotes - Page 30

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I've always done whatever I felt like doing in life. People may try to stop me, and convince me I'm wrong, but I won't change.

I've always done whatever I felt like doing in life. People may try to stop me, and convince me I'm wrong, but I won't change.

Haruki Murakami
Running, People, Trying
"What I Talk About When I Talk About Running". Book by Haruki Murakam, October 15, 2007.

You can hide as cleverly as you like, but in the final analysis mimicry is deception, pure and simple. It doesn't solve a thing.

Haruki Murakami
Simple, Deception, Analysis
Haruki Murakami (2011). “1Q84:”, p.102, Random House

...I've just been feeling insecure since I was 20, and that's all I've been trying to express. Now the entire world is feeling insecure.

Haruki Murakami
Insecure, Feelings, Trying

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
Heart, Cutting, Solitude

You are 27 or 28 right? It is very tough to live at that age. When nothing is sure. I have sympathy with you.

Haruki Murakami
Birthday, Sympathy, Age

I'm in no position to hand down any advice," he said, "but there's a rule I follow when I don't know what to do." "A rule?" "If you have to choose between something that has form and something that doesn't, go for the one without form. That's my rule. Whenever I run into a wall I follow that rule, and it always works out. Even if it's hard going at the time.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Wall, Hands

If a person remains tense for a long time he might not notice it himself, but it’s like his nerves are a piece of rubber that has been stretched out. It’s hard to go back to the original shape.

Haruki Murakami
Long, Nerves, Pieces

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
Thinking, People, Brain

Someone once said that nothing costs more and yields less benefit than revenge,” Aomame said. “Winston Churchill. As I recall it, though, he was making excuses for the British Empire’s budget deficits. It has no moral significance.

Haruki Murakami
Revenge, Yield, Cost

Either I'm funny or the world's funny. I don't know which. The bottle and lid don't fit. It could be the bottle's fault or the lid's fault. In either case, there's no denying that the fit is bad.

Haruki Murakami
World, Faults, Bottles
FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Mar 22, 2016

And as the years have passed, the time has grown longer. The sad truth is that what I could recall in five seconds all too needed ten, then thirty, then a full minute - like shadows lengthening at dusk. Someday, I suppose, the shadows will be swallowed up in darkness.

Haruki Murakami
Years, Darkness, Shadow
FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Feb 08, 2016

Who can really distinguish between the sea and what's reflected in it? Or tell the difference between the falling rain and loneliness?

Haruki Murakami
Loneliness, Rain, Fall
Haruki Murakami (2011). “Sputnik Sweetheart”, p.146, Random House

What I want is for the two of us to meet somewhere by chance one day, like, passing on the street, or getting on the same bus.

Haruki Murakami
Passing On, Two, One Day

Not just beautiful, though--the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they're watching me.

Haruki Murakami
Beautiful, Nature, Stars

Age certainly hadn't conferred any smarts on me. Character maybe, but mediocrity is a constant, as one Russian writer put it. Russian writers have a way with aphorisms. They probably spend all winter thinking them up.

Haruki Murakami
Smart, Character, Winter
FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Sep 25, 2015

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
Moving, People, World

I find myself thinking about my ongoing existence as a human being and the path that lies ahead of me. Though of course these thoughts lead to but one place - death.

Haruki Murakami
Lying, Thinking, Ongoing
Haruki Murakami (2011). “The Elephant Vanishes”, p.220, Random House

This was something sure to be crammed full of warm secrets, like an antique clock built when peace filled the world.

Haruki Murakami
Secret, World, Antiques

The power to concentrate was the most important thing. Living without this power would be like opening one’s eyes without seeing anything.

Haruki Murakami
Eye, Important, Would Be
Haruki Murakami (1994). “The Elephant Vanishes”, Vintage

It's just like Yeats said. In dreams begin responsibilities. Flip this around and you could say that where there's no power to imagine, no responsibility can arise.

Haruki Murakami
Dream, Responsibility, Flip

We knew exactly what we wanted in each other. And even so, it ended. One day it stopped, as if the film simply slipped off the reel.

Haruki Murakami
One Day, Film, Wanted
FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Oct 03, 2014

If I used being busy as an excuse not to run, I'd never run again. I have only a few reasons to keep on running, and a truckload of them to quit.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Quitting, Busy

Writing is fun - at least mostly. I write for four hours every day. After that I go running. As a rule, 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). That's easy to manage.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Fun, Writing

The point is, not to resist the flow. You go up when you're supposed to go up and down when you're supposed to go down. When you're supposed to go up, find the highest tower and climb to the top. When you're supposed to go down, find the deepest well and go down to the bottom. When there's no flow, stay still. If you resist the flow, everything dries up. If everything dries up, the world is darkness.

Haruki Murakami
Darkness, Towers, World
FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Oct 20, 2015

Sometimes I feel like a caretaker of a museum -- a huge, empty museum where no one ever comes, and I'm watching over it for no one but myself.

Haruki Murakami
Museums, Sometimes, Empty

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