The world’s greatest living novelist, essayist, short-story writer, translator, enthusiastic marathon runner and winner of numerous prestigious awards, Haruki Murakami is enchanting millions with his words, thoughts and ideas. Not just a popular Japanese author but he is also an iconic figure of postmodern literature. Some people say that Haruki Murakami quotes help them deal with life.
The author is mostly loved for his unreal and humorous work. His work that has become international bestsellers is because of the elements of surrealism and nihilism. His has‘an easily accessible, yet profoundly complex’ writing style because of which his works are very different from the conventional Japanese authors. His acclaimed novel Norwegian Wood will surely trigger something deep within you. His writing has the power to help you figure out who you really are and find something about yourself that you didn’t know existed before.
Here’s the compilation of insightful Haruki Murakami quotes to feed your soul:
1. “Even if we could turn back, we’d probably never end up back where we started.” — 1Q84
2. “The thing I’m most afraid of is me. Of not knowing what I’m going to do. Of not knowing what I’m doing right now”― 1Q84
3. “If you remember me, then I don’t care if everyone else forgets.” ― Kafka on the Shore
4. “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”
―Norwegian Wood
5. “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”
— What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
6. “Every one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That’s part of what it means to be alive.”— Kafka on the Shore
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7. “Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.”― Kafka on the Shore
8. “What matters is deciding in your heart to accept another person completely. When you do that, it is always the first time and the last.” — Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
9. “People’s memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive.”
— After Dark
10. “In everybody’s life, there’s a point of no return. And in a very few cases, a point where you can’t go forward anymore. And when we reach that point, all we can do is quietly accept the fact. That’s how we survive.”
11. “I have this strange feeling that I’m not myself anymore. It’s hard to put into words, but I guess it’s like I was fast asleep, and someone came, disassembled me, and hurriedly put me back together again. That sort of feeling.” — Sputnik Sweetheart
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12. “If you can love someone with your whole heart, even one person, then there’s salvation in life. Even if you can’t get together with that person.”
— 1Q84 (Vintage International)
13. “Whatever it is you’re seeking won’t come in the form you’re expecting.“
14. “There’s nothing wrong with not looking like something. It just means you don’t fit the stereotype yet.”
— 1Q84 (Vintage International)
15. “So the fact that I’m me and no one else is one of my greatest assets. Emotional hurt is the price a person has to pay in order to be independent.”
16. “What happens when people open their hearts?” “They get better.”― Norwegian Wood
17. “Nobody likes being alone that much. I don’t go out of my way to make friends, that’s all. It just leads to disappointment. ”― Norwegian Wood
18. “No matter how much suffering you went through, you never wanted to let go of those memories.”
19. “I dream. Sometimes I think that’s the only right thing to do.”― Sputnik Sweetheart
20. “Have you ever had that feeling? That you’d like to go to a whole different place and become a whole different self?”
21. “Silence, I discover, is something you can actually hear.” ― Kafka on the Shore
22. “Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, the hours are going by. The past increases, the future recedes. Possibilities decreasing, regrets mounting.”
―Dance Dance Dance
23. “Listen up – there’s no war that will end all wars.” ― Kafka on the Shore
24. “Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.”
―Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: 24 Stories
25. “No matter how far you travel, you can never get away from yourself.”
—After the Quake
26. “You can hide memories, but you can’t erase the history that produced them.” —Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
27. “Life is not like water. Things in life don’t necessarily flow over the shortest possible route.” —1Q84
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28. “In this world, there are things you can only do alone, and things you can only do with somebody else. It’s important to combine the two in just the right amount.” —After Dark
29. “That’s what the world is, after all: an endless battle of contrasting memories.”
—1Q84
30. “I sometimes think that people’s hearts are like deep wells. Nobody knows what’s at the bottom. All you can do is imagine by what comes floating to the surface every once in a while.”
31. “We’re both looking at the same moon, in the same world. We’re connected to reality by the same line. All I have to do is quietly draw it towards me.” —Sputnik Sweetheart
32. “I never trust people with no appetite. It’s like they’re always holding something back on you.”
—Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
33. “Say it before you run out of time. Say it before it’s too late. Say what you’re feeling. Waiting is a mistake.”
34. “The most important thing we learn at school is the fact that the most important things can’t be learned at school.” —What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
35. “Whatever it is you’re seeking won’t come in the form you’re expecting.”
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36. “Taking crazy things seriously is a serious waste of time.”
37. “Spend your money on the things money can buy. Spend your time on the things money can’t buy.”
38. “As time goes on, you’ll understand. What lasts, lasts; what doesn’t, doesn’t. Time solves most things. And what time can’t solve, you have to solve yourself.”
39. “Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Only assholes do that.” ―Norwegian Wood
40. “Whenever I look at the ocean, I always want to talk to people, but when I’m talking to people, I always want to look at the ocean.”
41. “As we go through life, we gradually discover who we are, but the more we discover, the more we lose ourselves.”
42. “People die all the time. Life is a lot more fragile than we think. So you should treat others in a way that leaves no regrets. Fairly, and if possible, sincerely.“
43. “Anyone who falls in love is searching for the missing pieces of themselves. So anyone who’s in love gets sad when they think of their lover. It’s like stepping back inside a room you have fond memories of, one you haven’t seen in a long time.” —Kafka On The Shor
44. “Closing your eyes isn’t going to change anything. Nothing’s going to disappear just because you can’t see what’s going on. In fact, things will even be worse the next time you open your eyes. That’s the kind of world we live in. Keep your eyes wide open. Only a coward closes his eyes. Closing your eyes and plugging up your ears won’t make time stand still.”
―Kafka on the Shore
45. “Why do people have to be this lonely? What’s the point of it all? Millions of people in this world, all of them yearning, looking to others to satisfy them, yet isolating themselves. Why? Was the earth put here just to nourish human loneliness?” ― Sputnik Sweetheart
46. “And once the storm is over you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”
—Kafka On The Shore
47. “But who can say what’s best? That’s why you need to grab whatever chance you have of happiness where you find it, and not worry about other people too much. My experience tells me that we get no more than two or three such chances in a lifetime, and if we let them go, we regret it for the rest of our lives.” — Norwegian Wood
48. “Things can be seen better in the darkness,” he said as if he had just seen into her mind. “But the longer you spend in the dark, the harder it becomes to return to the world above ground where the light is
“— 1Q84 (Vintage International)
49. “I was always hungry for love. Just once, I wanted to know what it was like to get my fill of it — to be fed so much love I couldn’t take any more. Just once.“—Norwegian Wood
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50. “I think that my job is to observe people and the world, and not to judge them. I always hope to position myself away from so-called conclusions. I would like to leave everything wide open to all the possibilities in the world.”
—Interview, The Paris Review
51. “Of course it hurt that we could never love each other in a physical way. We would have been far more happy if we had. But that was like the tides, the change of seasons–something immutable, an immovable destiny we could never alter. No matter how cleverly we might shelter it, our delicate friendship wasn’t going to last forever. We were bound to reach a dead end. That was painfully clear.” —Sputnik Sweetheart
52. “I think you still love me, but we can’t escape the fact that I’m not enough for you. I knew this was going to happen. So I’m not blaming you for falling in love with another woman. I’m not angry, either. I should be, but I’m not. I just feel pain. A lot of pain. I thought I could imagine how much this would hurt, but I was wrong.”
—South of the Border, West of the Sun
Did you enjoy reading Haruki Murakami Quotes? Did I miss anything? Would you like to add more?
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