Quotes from Haruki Murakami

People need routines. It's like a theme in music. But it also restricts your thoughts and actions and limits your freedom. It structures your priorities and some cases distorts your logic.

Good style, clear argument, but you're not saying anything.

There has to be pain. That's the rule

Mas, vendo bem, e se me é permitido um lugar-comum corriqueiro, não será que até as coisas inúteis têm cabimento neste mundo longe-de-ser-perfeito? Se desta vida imperfeita eliminássemos tudo o que é inútil, a imperfeição deixaria ela própria de fazer sentido.

Life is so uncertain: you never know what could happen.

It had been a long time since I felt the fragrance of summer: the scent of the ocean, a distant train whistle, the touch of a girl's skin, the lemony perfume of her hair, the evening wind, faint glimmers of hope, summer dreams. But none of these were the way they once had been; they were all somehow off, as if copied with tracing paper that kept slipping out of place. -from Hear the Wind Sing

We have a sane part of our minds and an insane part. We negotiate between those two parts.

Psychologically speaking (I'll only wheel out the amateur psychology just this once, so bear with me), encounters that call up strong physical disgust or revulsion are often in fact projections of our own faults and weaknesses.

Maybe that's why people don't like you. You make it obvious you don't care whether people like you or not. That makses some people angry.

In traveling, a companion, in life, compassion....So what does that really mean? In simple terms. I think it means...that chance encounters are what keep us going. In simple terms.

What the hell kind of revolution have you got just tossing out big words that working-class people can't understand? What the hell kind of social revolution is that? I mean, I'd like to make the world a better place, too. If somebody's really being exploited, we've got to put a stop to it. That's what I believe, and that's why I ask questions.

Las heridas incurables que recibe el corazón son la contraprestación natural que las personas tienen que pagar al mundo por su independencia.

Devouring books came as naturally to us as breathing.

How you think and feel's always linked to the lie of the land, the temperature. The prevailing winds, even. p.498

Trouble fell like rain from the heavens, and we just couldn't get enough of it. We went around picking up the stuff and cramming our pockets full of it. Even now I can't figure out why we persisted in doing that. Maybe we mistook it for something else.

I wake up, but where? I don't just think this, I actually voice the question to myself: Where am I? As if I didn't know: I'm here. In my life. A feature of the world that is my existence.

Truth is often accompanied by intense pain, and almost no one is looking for painful truths

La clase de chicas guapas que, por más tiempo que las mires, en cuanto apartas los ojos de ellas, ya no te acuerdas de qué cara tenían. En el mundo existe este tipo de belleza. Que es como los pomelos: indistinta.

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

I still have that fear, even now—that suddenly my very existence will be denied and, through no fault of my own, I'll be hurled into the night sea once more. Maybe that's why I haven't been able to form deep relationships with people. I always keep a distance between me and others." He

It's not that I don't believe in contemporary literature, he added, but I don't want to waste valuable time reading any book that has not had the baptism of time. Life is too short.

It must be though on you not being able to read, but it's not the end of the world. You might not be able to read, but there are things only you can do. That's what you gotta focus on - your strengths.

Life: I'll never understand it.

Music is my longtime friend. And I could never betray it. I listen to music while I'm writing.