Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"I go back to the reading room, where I sink down in the sofa and into the world of The Arabian Nights. Slowly, like a movie fadeout, the real world evaporates. I'm alone, inside the world of the story. My favourite feeling in the world."
89 Quotes
"I go back to the reading room, where I sink down in the sofa and into the world of The Arabian Nights. Slowly, like a movie fadeout, the real world evaporates. I'm alone, inside the world of the story. My favourite feeling in the world."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"You've already decided what you're going to do, and all that's left is to set the wheels in motion. I mean, it's your life. Basically, you gotta go with what you think is right."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"Slowly like a movie fade out, the real world evaporates. I'm alone, inside the world of the story. My favorite feeling in the world."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"Taking crazy things seriously is a serious waste of time."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"The sense of tragedy - according to Aristotle - comes, ironically enough, not from the protagonist's weak points but from his good qualities. Do you know what I'm getting at? People are drawn deeper into tragedy not by their defects but by their virtues. Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex being a great example. Oedipus is drawn into tragedy not because of laziness or stupidity, but because of his courage and honesty. So an inevitable irony results...[But] we accept irony through a device called metaphor. And through that we grow and become deeper human beings."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"If I sound as if I'm always predicting ominous things, it's because I'm a pragmatist. I use deductive reasoning to generalize, and I suppose this sometimes ends up sounding like unlucky prophecies. You know why? Because reality's just the accumulation of ominous prophecies come to life. You have to only open a newspaper on any given day and weigh the good news versus the bad, and you'll see what I mean."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"Oshima's silent for a time as he gazes at the forest, eyes narrowed. Birds are flitting from one branch to the next. His hands are clasped behind his head. "I know how you feel," he finally says. "But this is something you have to work out on your own. Nobody can help you. That's what love's all about, Kafka. You're the 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, Kafka on the Shore
"Fate seems to be taking me in some even stranger directions."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"A strange, terrific force unlike anything I've ever experienced is sprouting in my heart, taking root there, growing. Shut up behind my rib cage, my warm heart expands and contracts independent of my will--over and over."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"Like someone excitedly relating a story, only to find the words petering out, the path gets narrower the further I go, the undergrowth taking over."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"The people who build high, strong fences are the ones who survive the best. You deny that reality only at the risk of being driven into the wilderness yourself."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"Making up for lost time" "Yes," I say. "A lot of things were stolen from my childhood. Lots of important things. And now I have to get them back." "In order to keep on li"
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"Making up for lost time"Yes," I say. "A lot of things were stolen from my childhood. Lots of important things. And now I have to get them back." "In order to keep on living."I"
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"Necessity is an independent concept. It has a different structure from logic, morals, or meaning. Its function lies entirely in the role it plays. What doesn't play a role shouldn't exist. What necessity requires does need to exist. That's what you call dramaturgy."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"At the same time that 'I' am the content of a relation, 'I' am also that which does the relating."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"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."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"In ancient times, people weren't just male or female, but one of three types: male/male, male/female, female/female. In other words, each person was made out of the components of two people. Everyone was happy with this arrangement and never really gave it much a thought. But then God took a knife and cut everybody in half, right down the middle. So after that the world was divided just into male and female, the upshot being that people spend their time running around trying to locate their missing other half."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
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