Quotes from Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

In the name of God, they stole her time and her freedom, putting shackles on her heart. They preached about God's kindness, but preached twice as much about his wrath and intolerance.

Wherever there's hope there's a trial.

But hell, you've gotta work with what you've got.

Loneliness becomes an acid that eats away at you.

Life is not like water. Things in life don't necessarily flow over the shortest possible route.

It's not me but the world that's deranged.

This is what it means to live on. When granted hope, a person uses it as fuel, as a guidepost to life. It is impossible to live without hope.

It seemed to me that this world has a serious shortage of both logic and kindness.

Time flows in strange ways on Sundays, and sights become mysteriously distorted.

Being alive, if you had to define it, meant emitting a variety of smells

Guns are like cars: you can trust a good used one better than one that's brand new.

Only by learning the truth—whatever that truth might be—could people be given the right kind of power.

But still, " Ayumi said, "it seems to me that this world has a serious shortage of both logic and kindness.""You may be right, " Aomame said, "But it's too late to trade it in for another one.

I'm all alone, but I'm not lonely.

Whenever she felt like crying, she would instead become angry—at someone else or at herself—which meant that it was rare for her to shed tears.

What I want is for the two of us to meet somewhere by chance one day, like, passing on the street, or getting on the same bus.

She lived frugally, but her meals were the only things on which she deliberately spent her money. She never compromised on the quality of her groceries, and drank only good-quality wines.