Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"In dreams begins responsiblities."
89 Quotes
"A healthy amount of fear and respect might be a good idea"
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"The journey I'm taking is inside me. Just like blood travels down veins, what I'm seeing is my inner self and what seems threatening is just the echo of the fear in my heart."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"When I open them, most of the books have the smell of an earlier time leaking out between the pages - a special odor of the knowledge and emotions that for ages have been calmly resting between the covers. Breathing it in, I glance through a few pages before returning each book to its shelf."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"Things change everyday. With each new dawn, it is not the same world as before. And you’re not the same person you were either."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"In traveling, a companion, in life, compassion,'" she repeats, making sure of it. If she had paper and pencil, it wouldn't surprise me if she wrote it down. "So what does that really mean? In simple terms." I think it over. It takes me a while to gather my thoughts, but she waits patiently. "I think it means," I say, "that chance encounters are what keep us going. In simple terms."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"You know what I should do" Hoshino asked excited. "Of course," the cat said. "What'd I tell you? Cats know everything. Not like dogs."
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, or 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 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
"Writing things was important, wasn't it? Nakata asked.'Yes, it was. The process of writing was important. Even though the finished product is completely meaningless."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"If you think God’s there, He is. If you don’t, He isn’t. And if that’s what God’s like, I wouldn’t worry about it."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"When someone is trying very hard to get something, they don't. And when they're running away from something as hard as they can, it usually catches up with them."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"According to Aristophanes in Plato's The Banquet, in the ancient world of legend there were three types of people. In ancient times people weren't simply male or female, but one of three types : male/male, male/female or female/female. In other words, each person was made out of the components of two people. Everyone was happy with this arrangment and never really gave it much thought. But then God took a knife and cut everyone 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 half."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"Time weighs down on you like an old, ambiguous dream. You keep on moving, trying to sleep through it. But even if you go to the ends of the earth, you won't be able to escape it. Still, you have to go there- to the edge of the world. There's something you can't do unless you get there."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"People soon get tired of things that aren't boring, but not of what is boring."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
"That’s how stories happen — with a turning point, an unexpected twist. There’s only one kind of happiness, but misfortune comes in all shapes and sizes. It’s like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story."
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...[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
"Even chance meetings are the result of karma… Things in life are fated by our previous lives. That even in the smallest events there’s no such thing as coincidence."
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
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