Haruki Murakami

"In the novelist's profession, as far as I'm concerned, there's no such thing as winning or losing. Maybe numbers of copies sold, awards won, and critics' praise serve as outward standards for accomplishment in literature, but none of them really matter. What's crucial is whether your writing attains the standards you've set for yourself. Failure to reach that bar is not something you can easily explain away. When it comes to other people, you can always come up with a reasonable explanation, but you can't fool yourself. In this sense, writing novels and running full marathons are very much alike."

150 Quotes

"In the novelist's profession, as far as I'm concerned, there's no such thing as winning or losing. Maybe numbers of copies sold, awards won, and critics' praise serve as outward standards for accomplishment in literature, but none of them really matter. What's crucial is whether your writing attains the standards you've set for yourself. Failure to reach that bar is not something you can easily explain away. When it comes to other people, you can always come up with a reasonable explanation, but you can't fool yourself. In this sense, writing novels and running full marathons are very much alike."

Haruki Murakami

"A person's last moments are an important thing. Yuou can't choose how you're born, but you can choose how you die."

Haruki Murakami

"For a while is a phrase whose length can't be measured. At least by the person who's waiting."

Haruki Murakami South of the Border, West of the Sun

"Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, the hours are going by. The past increases, the future recedes. Possibilities decreasing, regrets mounting."

Haruki Murakami Dance Dance Dance

"That amazing time in our lives is gone, and will never return. All the beautiful possibilities we had then have been swallowed up in the flow of time."

Haruki Murakami

"“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.”"

Haruki Murakami Sputnik Sweetheart

"This is one more piece of advice I have for you: don't get impatient. Even if things are so tangled up you can't do anything, don't get desperate or blow a fuse and start yanking on one particular thread before it's ready to come undone. You have to realize it's going to be along process and that you'll work on things slowly, one at a time."

Haruki Murakami Norwegian Wood

"I have a million things to talk to you about. All I want in this world is you. I want to see you and talk. I want the two of us to begin everything from the beginning."

Haruki Murakami Norwegian Wood

"“No truth can cure the sorrow we feel from losing a loved one. No truth, no sincerity, no strength, no kindness can cure that sorrow. All we can do is see it through to the end and learn something from it, but what we learn will be no help in facing the next sorrow that comes to us without warning.”"

Haruki Murakami Norwegian Wood

"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."

Haruki Murakami 1Q84

"“Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.”"

Haruki Murakami Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: 24 Stories

"“Most things are forgotten over time. Even the war itself, the life-and-death struggle people went through is now like something from the distant past. We’re so caught up in our everyday lives that events of the past are no longer in orbit around our minds. There are just too many things we have to think about everyday, too many new things we have to learn. But still, no matter how much time passes, no matter what takes place in the interim, there are some things we can never assign to oblivion, memories we can never rub away. They remain with us forever, like a touchstone.”"

Haruki Murakami Kafka on the Shore

"I mean, public libraries like this one were always short of money, so building even the tiniest of labyrinths had to be beyond their means."

Haruki Murakami

"“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.”"

Haruki Murakami Kafka on the Shore

"There is an instinctive withdrawal for the sake of preservation, a closure that assumes the order of completion. Winter is a season unto itself."

Haruki Murakami

"Is it possible, in the final analysis, for one human being to achieve perfect understanding of another?We can invest enormous time and energy in serious efforts to know another person, but in the end, how close can we come to that person's essence? We convince ourselves that we know the other person well, but do we really know anything important about anyone?"

Haruki Murakami The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

"No matter how much suffering you went through, you never wanted to let go of those memories."

Haruki Murakami

"Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional."

Haruki Murakami What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

"If you remember me, then I don't care if everyone else forgets."

Haruki Murakami Kafka on the Shore

"It's just that the chaos has changed shape. The giraffe and the bear have traded hats, and the bear's switched scarves with the zebra."

Haruki Murakami

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