Haruki Murakami
Japan's most internationally acclaimed living novelist
Most quoted
"Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts itself to your movement. Again and again. Until at last, you and the storm stop trying to outrun each other. This is because the storm isn't something that has nothing to do with you, something that's blowing from far away. The storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn't get in, and walk through it, step by step."
— from Kafka on the Shore, 2002
"Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn't something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn't get in, and walk through it, step by step."
— from Kafka on the Shore, 2002
"Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Again and again you play this game, like a hapless dancer with Death. Because the storm isn't something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn't get in, and walk through it, step by step."
— from Kafka on the Shore, 2002
All quotes by Haruki Murakami (395)
It's hard to tell the difference between sea and sky, between voyager and sea. Between reality and the workings of the heart.
I want you always to remember me. Will you remember that I existed, and that I stood next to you here like this?
There's no such thing as perfect writing, just like there's no such thing as perfect despair.
The point is, not to resist the flow. You go up when you're supposed to go up and down when you're supposed to go down. When you're supposed to go up, find the highest tower and climb to the top. When you're supposed to go down, find the deepest well and go down to the bottom.
I have to write things down to feel I fully comprehend them.
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.
I'm not a genius. I'm just a guy who likes to write and happens to have a lot of patience.
I think my work is like a dream. In a dream, you don't analyze. You just accept.
The deeper the sorrow, the less tongue it has.
Reality and the metaphor were equivalent. That was the way the world was organized.
You can hide memories, but you can't erase the history that produced them.
Life is not like water. Things in life don't necessarily flow over the shortest possible route.
I have to write. It's not a question of wanting to. Writing is like a survival instinct for me.
The world is a huge place, and as long as you have the curiosity and the drive, you can find your own little corner of it and make something of yourself.
I was always hungry for love. Just once, I wanted to know what it was like to get my fill of it—to be fed so much love I couldn't take any more. Just once.
Contemporaries of Haruki Murakami
Other Literatures born within 50 years of Haruki Murakami (1949).