Step into the mesmerizing world of Haruki Murakami, where cats can talk, fish fall from the sky, and reality blends seamlessly with dreams. This beloved Japanese author has captivated readers worldwide with his surreal narratives and profound insights into the human condition.
But even if you haven’t delved into his novels, Murakami’s quotes offer a tantalizing glimpse into his unique perspective on life, love, and the universe.
From existential musings to quirky observations, these Murakami quotes are sure to make you pause, ponder, and perhaps see the world in a slightly different light.
1. “Despite your best efforts, people are going to be hurt when it’s time for them to be hurt.”
2. “Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Only ***holes do that.”
3. “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.”
4. “Memories and thoughts age, just as people do. But certain thoughts can never age, and certain memories can never fade.”
5. “What do you think? I’m not a starfish or a pepper tree. I’m a living, breathing human being. Of course I’ve been in love.”
6. “What we seek is some kind of compensation for what we put up with.”
7. “For a while is a phrase whose length can’t be measured. At least by the person who’s waiting.”
8. “Only the Dead stay seventeen forever.”
9. “I want you always to remember me. Will you remember that I existed, and that I stood next to you here like this?”
10. “Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.”
11. “There are ways of dying that don’t end in funerals. Types of death you can’t smell.”
12. “Not just beautiful, though—the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they’re watching me.”
13. “Don’t pointless things have a place, too, in this far-from-perfect world?”
14. “Letters are just pieces of paper, I said. Burn them, and what stays in your heart will stay; keep them, and what vanishes will vanish.”
15. “If they invent a car that runs on stupid jokes, you could go far.”
16. “Nobody likes being alone that much. I don’t go out of my way to make friends, that’s all. It just leads to disappointment.”
17. “If you’re in pitch blackness, all you can do is sit tight until your eyes get used to the dark.”
18. “No matter how far you travel, you can never get away from yourself.”
19. “In a sense, I’m the one who ruined me: I did it myself.”
20. “There are things you can only do alone, and things you can only do with somebody else. It’s important to combine the two in just the right amount.”
21. “Every one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That’s part of what it means to be alive.”
22. “No matter what they wish for, no matter how far they go, people can never be anything but themselves. That’s all.”
23. “Most everything you think you know about me is nothing more than memories.”
24. “I’m a very ordinary human being; I just happen to like reading books.”
25. “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.”
26. “What happens when people open their hearts? They get better.”
27. “A certain type of perfection can only be realized through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect.”
28. “Dreams come from the past, not from the future. Dreams shouldn’t control you—you should control them.”
29. “Taking crazy things seriously is a serious waste of time.”
30. “The light of morning decomposes everything.”
31. “The sky grew darker, painted blue on blue, one stroke at a time, into deeper and deeper shades of night.”
32. “The answer is dreams. Dreaming on and on. Entering the world of dreams and never coming out. Living in dreams for the rest of time.”
33. “Life is not like water. Things in life don’t necessarily flow over the shortest possible route.”
34. “Two people can sleep in the same bed and still be alone when they close their eyes.”
35. “Whiskey, like a beautiful woman, demands appreciation. You gaze first, then it’s time to drink.”
36. “If you can’t understand it without an explanation, you can’t understand it with an explanation.”
37. “What makes us the most normal,” said Reiko, “is knowing that we’re not normal.”
38. “If you remember me, then I don’t care if everyone else forgets.”
39. “But I didn’t understand then. That I could hurt somebody so badly she would never recover. That a person can, just by living, damage another human being beyond repair.”
40. “The most important thing we learn at school is the fact that the most important things can’t be learned at school.”
41. “Not that we were incompatible: we just had nothing to talk about.”
42. “Chance encounters are what keep us going.”
43. “Each person feels pain in his own way, each has his own scars.”
44. “So what’s wrong if there happens to be one guy in the world who enjoys trying to understand you?”
45. “Even if we could turn back, we’d probably never end up where we started.”
46. “Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, the hours are going by. The past increases, the future recedes. Possibilities decreasing, regrets mounting.”
47. “So the fact that I’m me and no one else is one of my greatest assets. Emotional hurt is the price a person has to pay in order to be independent.”
48. “Spend your money on the things money can buy. Spend your time on the things money can’t buy.”
49. “I realize full well how hard it must be to go on living alone in a place from which someone has left you, but there is nothing so cruel in this world as the desolation of having nothing to hope for.”
50. “I’m not so weird to me.”
51. “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.”
52. “Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.”
53. “It’s because of you when I’m in bed in the morning that I can wind my spring and tell myself I have to live another good day.”
54. “There is no war that will end all wars.”
55. “The light of morning decomposes everything.”
56. “In a place far away from anyone or anywhere, I drifted off for a moment.”
57. “Silence, I discover, is something you can actually hear.”
58. “No matter how much suffering you went through, you never wanted to let go of those memories.”
59. “You can hide memories, but you can’t erase the history that produced them.”
60. “We knew exactly what we wanted in each other. And even so, it ended. One day it stopped, as if the film simply slipped off the reel.”
61. “Sometimes I get real lonely sleeping with you.”
62. “You can keep as quiet as you like, but one of these days somebody is going to find you.”
63. “It is not that the meaning cannot be explained. But there are certain meanings that are lost forever the moment they are explained in words.”
64. “What lasts, lasts; what doesn’t, doesn’t. Time solves most things. And what time can’t solve, you have to solve yourself.”
65. “Body cells replace themselves every month. Even at this very moment. Most everything you think you know about me is nothing more than memories.”
66. “What a terrible thing it is to wound someone you really care for and to do it so unconsciously.”
67. “I can bear any pain as long as it has meaning.”
68. “I don’t care what you do to me, but I don’t want you to hurt me. I’ve had enough hurt already in my life. More than enough. Now I want to be happy.”
69. “People leave strange little memories of themselves behind when they die.”
70. “I dream. Sometimes I think that’s the only right thing to do.”
71. “You think it would be wonderful to get rid of everything and everybody and just go someplace where you don’t know a soul?”
72. “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.”
73. “There are things that can only be said with a good cigar in the mouth.”
74. “Time is a tricky thing. But at least I’ll always be grateful that I was able to be in your time, however briefly.”
75. “You’re living a high-risk lifestyle, said the bartender. You’re living a high-risk lifestyle, said the priest.”
76. “With Naoko gone, I myself had changed to a ghost, drifting through the streets of Tokyo, wanting only to collapse somewhere.”
77. “We’re all kind of weird and twisted and drowning.”
78. “We know you`re tired, tired, and scared. Happens to everyone, okay? Just don`t let your feet stop.”
79. “The right words always seemed to come too late.”
80. “Whatever it is you are seeking, won’t come in the form you are expecting.”
81. “Time flows in a strange way on Sundays.”
82. “The people who don’t think are the ones who never listen.”
83. “But we cannot simply sit and stare at our wounds forever.”
Whether these quotes left you scratching your head, laughing out loud, or staring pensively into the distance, one thing’s for sure: Murakami’s words have a way of sticking with you.
Next time you’re sipping coffee at 2 AM, watching a cat stroll by, or feeling like you’ve stumbled into a parallel universe (hey, it happens), you might just find one of these quotes popping into your head.
Sprinkle some of this surreal wisdom into your daily life. Who says reality has to be so… real?
Hey fellow Linguaholics! It’s me, Marcel. I am the proud owner of linguaholic.com. Languages have always been my passion and I have studied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics and Sinology at the University of Zurich. It is my utmost pleasure to share with all of you guys what I know about languages and linguistics in general.