Quotes from Haruki Murakami

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.

I am 55 years old now. It takes three years to write one book. I don't know how many books I will be able to write before I die. It is like a countdown. So with each book I am praying - please let me live until I am finished.

You know, if you are kind of rich, the best thing is that you don't have to think about money. The best thing you can buy with money is freedom, time. I don't know how much I earn a year. I have no idea. I don't know how much I pay in taxes.

Her smile steps offstage for a moment, then does an encore, all while I'm dealing with my blushing face.

Everybody thinks I'm this delicate little girl. But you can't tell a book by it's cover.' To which she added a momentary smile.

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.

To be able to talk to your heart's content about a book you like with someone who feels the same way about it is one of the greatest joys that life can offer.

If you can't understand it without an explanation, you can't understand it with an explanation.

Don't feel sorry for yourself. Only arseholes do that.

Silence, I discover, is something you can actually hear.

Start making excuses and there's no end to it. I can't live that kind of life.

Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that's the essence of running, and a metaphor for life

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.

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

I'm a writer. I don't support any war. That's my principle.

Mere humans who root through their refrigerators at three o'clock in the morning can only produce writing that matches what they do. And that includes me.

I don't want to express my opinion about actual politics, because if I do, I have to be responsible for my decision.

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.

When I was a teenager, I thought how great it would be if only I could write novels in English. I had the feeling that I would be able to express my emotions so much more directly than if I wrote in Japanese.

Isn't life strange? There are people who have so many leftover clothes they can't stuff them all in their wardrobe. And then there are people like me, whose socks never match.

No one could say how long that life would last. Whatever has form can disappear in an instant.

Knowledge and ability were tools, not things to show off.

Whatever it is you're seeking won't come in the form you're expecting.

In most cases learning something essential in life requires physical pain.