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Haruki Murakami Quotes - Page 42

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I'm not human. I'm a piece of machinery. I don't need to feel a thing. Just forge on ahead.

I'm not human. I'm a piece of machinery. I don't need to feel a thing. Just forge on ahead.

Haruki Murakami
Needs, Pieces, Machinery

If she did experience sex-or something close to it-in high school, I'm sure it would have been less out of sexual desire or love than literary curiosity.

Haruki Murakami
Sex, School, Curiosity
"Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami", www.theguardian.com. May 25, 2001.

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
Taken, Mean, Thinking
"The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle". Book by Haruki Murakami, 1994.

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
Rights, Hands, Your Side
Haruki Murakami (2011). “Dance Dance Dance”, p.170, Random House

The house kept its own time, like the old-fashioned grandfather clock in the living room. People who happened by raised the weights, and as long as the weights were wound, the clock continued ticking away. But with people gone and the weights unattended, whole chunks of time were left to collect in deposits of faded life on the floor.

Haruki Murakami
Long, People, House
"A Wild Sheep Chase". Book by Haruki Murakami, 1982.

You could be anybody when you're writing. That's the reason that I'm writing: to be anybody. You can put your feet in various shoes and experience anything.

Haruki Murakami
Writing, Shoes, Feet

I never plan. I never know what the next page is going to be..... But that's the fun of writing a novel or a story, because I don't know what's going to happen next.

Haruki Murakami
Fun, Writing, Stories

I always feel like I'm struggling to become someone else. Like I'm trying to find a new place, grab hold of a new life, a new personality. I guess it's part of growing up; it's also an attempt to reinvent myself.

Haruki Murakami
Life, Growing Up, Struggle

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
Writing, Two, Style

The best thing would be to break your neck, but you'd probably just break your leg and then you couldn't do a thing. You'd yell at the top of your lungs, but nobody;d hear you, and you couldn't expect anybody to find you, and you'd have centipedes and spiders crawling all over you, and the bones of the ones who died before are scattered all around you, and it's dark and soggy, and way overhead there's this tiny, tiny circle of light like a winter moon. You die there in this place, little by little, all by yourself.

Haruki Murakami
Dark, Winter, Moon
Haruki Murakami (2007). “Vintage Murakami”, p.9, Vintage

You know, the usual story. Once upon a time I was playing my harp by a spring when a fairy appeared out of nowhere, handed me a Beretta Model 92, and told me to shoot the white rabbit over there for target practice.

Haruki Murakami
Spring, Practice, White
Haruki Murakami (2011). “1Q84: Books 1 and 2”, p.99, Random House

It was a narrow world, a world that was standing still. But the narrower it became, the more it betook of stillness, the more this world that enveloped me seemed to overflow with things and people that could only be called strange. They had been there all the while, it seemed, waiting in the shadows for me to stop moving. And every time the wind-up bird came to my yard to wind its spring, the world descendedmore deeply into chaos.

Haruki Murakami
Spring, Moving, Wind
FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Jul 03, 2015

Listen to this, Nimit. Follow Coleman Hawkins' improvised lines very carefully. He is using them to tell us something. Pay very close attention. He is telling us the story of the free spirit that is doing everything it can to escape from within him. That same kind of spirit is inside me, inside you. There-you can hear it, I'm sure: the hot breath, the shivering heart. (Thailand)

Haruki Murakami
Heart, Free Spirit, Hot
Haruki Murakami (2011). “After The Quake”, p.73, Random House

I myself, as I'm writing, don't know who did it. The readers and I are on the same ground. When I start to write a story, I don't know the conclusion at all and I don't know what's going to happen next. If there is a murder case as the first thing, I don't know who the killer is. I write the book because I would like to find out. If I know who the killer is, there's no purpose to writing the story.

Haruki Murakami
Book, Writing, Purpose

You know, eating's much more important than most people think. There comes a time in your life when you've just got to have something super-delicious. And when you're standing at that crossroads your whole life can change, depending on which one you go into - the good restaurant or the awful one.

Haruki Murakami
Thinking, People, Important
Haruki Murakami (2011). “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman”, p.269, Random House

I've run the Boston Marathon 6 times before. I think the best aspects of the marathon are the beautiful changes of the scenery along the route and the warmth of the people's support. I feel happier every time I enter this marathon.

Haruki Murakami
Beautiful, Running, Thinking

Whenever I write a novel, music just sort of naturally slips in (much like cats do, I suppose).

Haruki Murakami
Writing, Cat, Novel
"Questions for Murakami about Kafka on the Shore". www.harukimurakami.com.

It is hard to be an individual in Japan.

Haruki Murakami
Japan, Individual, Hard

When I am writing, I do not distinguish between the natural and supernatural. Everything seems real. That is my world, you could say.

Haruki Murakami
Real, Writing, World

I have always liked running, so it wasn't particularly difficult to make it a habit. All you need is a pair of running shoes and you can do it anywhere. It does not require anybody to do it with, and so I found the sport perfectly fits me as a person who tends to be independent and individualistic.

Haruki Murakami
Sports, Running, Independent

You have to dream intentionally. Most people dream a dream when they are asleep. But to be a writer, you have to dream while you are awake, intentionally.

Haruki Murakami
Dream, People, Awake
"What Haruki Murakami talks about". Interview with Heidi Benson, www.sfgate.com. October 26, 2008.

Every writer has his writing technique - what he can and can't do to describe something like war or history. I'm not good at writing about those things, but I try because I feel it is necessary to write that kind of thing.

Haruki Murakami
War, Writing, Trying

Most near-future fictions are boring. It's always dark and always raining, and people are so unhappy.

Haruki Murakami
Rain, Dark, People
"The Fierce Imagination of Haruki Murakami". Interview with Sam Anderson, www.nytimes.com. October 21, 2011.

You have to be practical. So every time I say, if you want to write a novel you have to be practical, people get bored. They are disappointed. They are expecting a more dynamic, creative, artistic thing to say. What I want to say is: you have to be practical.

Haruki Murakami
Writing, People, Bored
"Haruki Murakami: 'I took a gamble and survived'". Interview with Emma Brockes, www.theguardian.com. October 14, 2011.

I didn't read so much Japanese literature. Because my father was a teacher of Japanese literature, I just wanted to do something else.

Haruki Murakami
Teacher, Father, Literature
"What Haruki Murakami talks about". Interview with Heidi Benson, www.sfgate.com. October 26, 2008.

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