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Haruki Murakami Quotes - Page 32

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I don’t know, I don’t feel right unless I’ve got the sea and mountains nearby. People are mostly a product of where they were born and raised. How you think and feel’s always linked to the lay of the land, the

I don’t know, I don’t feel right unless I’ve got the sea and mountains nearby. People are mostly a product of where they were born and raised. How you think and feel’s always linked to the lay of the land, the temperature. The prevailing winds, even.

Haruki Murakami
Thinking, Wind, Sea

Never trust a man who carries a handkerchief, I always say. One of many prejudicial rules of thumb.

Haruki Murakami
Men, Thumbs, Never Trust
Haruki Murakami (1993). “Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel”, Vintage

With luck, it might even snow for us.

Haruki Murakami
Snow, Luck, Might

Death leaves cans of shaving cream half-used.

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

The passage of time will usually extract the venom of most things and render them harmless

Haruki Murakami
Venom, Passage Of Time, Passages
Haruki Murakami (2011). “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle”, p.79, Random House

I didn't start running because somebody asked me to become a runner. Just like I didn't become a novelist because someone asked me to. One day, out of the blue, I wanted to write a novel. And one day, out of the blue, I started to run-simply because I wanted to. 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, Writing, Blue
FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Aug 21, 2015

By then running had entered the realm of the metaphysical. First there came the action of running, and accompanying it there was this entity known as me. I run; therefore I am.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Firsts, Action

You know, they've got these chocolate assortments, and you like some but you don't like others? And you eat all the ones you like, and the only ones left are the ones you don't like as much? I always think about that when something painful comes up. Now I just have to polish these off, and everything'll be OK. Life is a box of chocolates. I suppose you could call it a philosophy.

Haruki Murakami
Philosophy, Thinking, Chocolate
Haruki Murakami (2011). “Norwegian Wood”, p.331, Random House

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
Eye, Winter, Advent
Haruki Murakami (1989). “Norwegian Wood”

You’re optimistic one moment, only to be racked the next by the certainty that it will all fall to pieces. And in the end it does.

Haruki Murakami
Fall, Optimistic, Next

[...] Shimamoto had her own little world within her. A world that was for her alone, one I could not enter.

Haruki Murakami
World, Littles

I could have been a cult writer if I'd kept writing surrealistic novels. But I wanted to break into the mainstream, so I had to prove that I could write a realistic book.

Haruki Murakami
Book, Writing, Realistic

I just wanted to write something about running, but I realized that to write about my running is to write about my writing. It's a parallel thing in me.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Writing, Wanted
"What Haruki Murakami talks about". Interview with Heidi Benson, www.sfgate.com. October 26, 2008.

I started writing at the kitchen table after midnight. It took ten months to finish that first book; I sent it to a publisher and I got some kind of prize, so it was like a dream - I was surprised to find it happening.

Haruki Murakami
Dream, Book, Writing

I try not to think about anything special while running. As a matter of fact, I usually run with my mind empty. However, when I run empty-minded, something naturally and abruptly crawls in sometime. That might become an idea that can help me with my writing.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Writing, Thinking

I was enjoying myself writing, because I don't know what's going to happen when I take a ride around that corner. You don't know at all what you're going to find there. That can be thrilling when you read a book, especially when you're a kid and you're reading stories.

Haruki Murakami
Book, Reading, Writing

When I'm running I don't have to talk to anybody and don't have to listen to anybody. This is a part of my day I can't do without.

Haruki Murakami
Running, I Can
"What I talk about when I talk about running". Memoir by Haruki Murakami, October 15, 2007.

Okay, let’s put it this way. I would like to sleep with you. But it’s alright if I don’t sleep with you. What I’m saying is I’d like to be as fair as possible. I don’t want to force anything on anybody, any more than I’d want anything forced on me. It’s enough that I feel your presence or see your commas swirling around me.

Haruki Murakami
Sleep, Want, Way

They sat on a park bench, held hands, and told each other their stories hour after hour. They were not lonely anymore. They had found and been found by their 100% perfect other. What a wonderful thing it is to find and be found by your 100% perfect other. It's a miracle, a cosmic miracle.

Haruki Murakami
Lonely, Hands, Perfect
"The Elephant Vanishes". Book by Haruki Murakami, 1994.

I wander though China. Without ever having boarded a plane. My travels take place here in the Tokoyo subways, in the backseat of a taxi... all of a sudden this city will start to go. In a flash, the buildings will crumble. Over the Tokyo streets will fall my China, like ash, leaching into everything it touches. Slowly, gradually, until nothing remains. No, this isn't a place for me.

Haruki Murakami
Fall, Cities, Ashes

Better to be a first-class matchbox than a second-class match.

Haruki Murakami
Class, Firsts, Matchboxes
Haruki Murakami (2011). “Norwegian Wood”, p.198, Random House

Of course life frightens me sometimes. I don't happen to take that as the premise for everything else though. I'm going to give it hundred percent and go as far as I can. I'll take what I want and leave what I don't want. That's how I intend to live my life, and it things go bad, I'll stop and reconsider at that point. If you think about it, an unfair society is a society that makes it possible for you to exploit your abilities to the limit.

Haruki Murakami
Thinking, Giving, Want
FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Mar 15, 2016

Give yourself five minutes to consider how you can turn a miserable situation to your benefit and that light bulb is going to click on.

Haruki Murakami
Light, Giving, Benefits

Everybody's born with some different thing at the core of their existence. And that thing, whatever it is, becomes like a heat source that runs each person from the inside. I have one too, of course. Like everybody else. But sometimes it gets out of hand. It swells or shrinks inside me, and it shakes me up. What I'd really like to do is find a way to communicate that feeling to another person.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Hands, Feelings
FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Mar 02, 2017

She's kind of funny looking. Her face is out of balance--broad forehead, button nose, freckled cheeks, and pointy ears. A slammed-together, rough sort of face you can't ignore. Still, the whole package isn't so bad. For all I know maybe she's not so wild about her own looks, but she seems comfortable with who she is, and that's the important thing.

Haruki Murakami
Balance, Important, Together

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