Haruki Murakami
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.Collection: Running
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.Collection: Regret
No truth can cure the sorrow we feel from losing a loved one. No truth, no sincerity, no strength, no kindness can cure that sorrow. All we can do is see it through to the end and learn something from it, but what we learn will be no help in facing the next sorrow that comes to us without warning.Collection: Death
Never let the darkness or negativity outside affect your inner self. Just wait until morning comes and the bright light will drown out the darkness.Collection: Good Night
Anyone who falls in love is searching for the missing pieces of themselves.Collection: Love
No matter how far you travel, you can never get away from yourself.Collection: Life
Whatever it is you're seeking won't come in the form you're expecting.Collection: Life
Become like a sheet of blotting paper and soak it all in. Later on you can figure out what to keep and what to unload.Collection: Paper
She was truly a beautiful girl. I could feel a small polished stone sinking through the darkest waters of my heart. All those deep convoluted channels and passageways, and yet she managed to toss her pebble right down to the bottom of it all.Collection: Beautiful
That's why I like listening to Schubert while I'm driving. Like I said, it's because all his performances are imperfect. A dense, artistic kind of imperfection stimulates your consciousness, keeps you alert. If I listen to some utterly perfect performance of an utterly perfect piece while I'm driving, I might want to close my eyes and die right then and there. But listening to the D major, I can feel the limits of what humans are capable of - that a certain type of perfection can only be realized through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect. And personally I find that encouraging.Collection: Eye
I'd be smiling and chatting away, and my mind would be floating around somewhere else, like a balloon with a broken string.Collection: Somewhere Else
I may not be the most likable person in the world, but I try not to upset people.Collection: People
I said nothing for a time, just ran my fingertips along the edge of the human-shaped emptiness that had been left inside me.Collection: Emptiness
But even so, every now and then I would feel a violent stab of loneliness. The very water I drink, the very air I breathe, would feel like long, sharp needles. The pages of a book in my hands would take on the threatening metallic gleam of razor blades. I could hear the roots of loneliness creeping through me when the world was hushed at four o'clock in the morning.Collection: Morning
We were young, and we had no need for prophecies. Just living was itself an act of prophecy.Collection: Needs
Learning another language is like becoming another person.Collection: Inspirational
I don't know, there's something about you. Say there's an hourglass: the sand's about to run out. Someone like you can always be counted on to turn the thing over.Collection: Running
In everybody’s life there’s a point of no return. And in a very few cases, a point where you can’t go forward anymore. And when we reach that point, all we can do is quietly accept the fact. That’s how we survive.Collection: Life Lesson
When I was little, I had this science book. There was a section on 'What would happen to the world if there was no friction?' Answer: 'Everything on earth would fly into space from the centrifugal force of revolution.' That was my mood.Collection: Book
My shadow is only half of what it should be." "Everyone has their shortcomings.Collection: Shadow
Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Say you’re running and you think, ‘Man, this hurts, I can’t take it anymore. The ‘hurt’ part is an unavoidable reality, but whether or not you can stand anymore is up to the runner himself.Collection: Running
Of what value is a civilization that can't toast a piece of bread as ordered?Collection: Civilization
I think you still love me, but we can’t escape the fact that I’m not enough for you. I knew this was going to happen. So I’m not blaming you for falling in love with another woman. I’m not angry, either. I should be, but I’m not. I just feel pain. A lot of pain. I thought I could imagine how much this would hurt, but I was wrong.Collection: Love
There are three ways you can get along with a girl: one, shut up and listen to what she has to say; two, tell her you like what she's wearing; and three, treat her to really good food...If you do all that and still don't get the results you want, better give up.Collection: Girl
Don’t you see? You and he might never cross paths again. Of course, a chance meeting could occur, and I hope it happens. I really do, for your sake. But realistically speaking, you have to see there’s a huge possibility you’ll never be able to meet him again. And even if you do meet, he might already be married to somebody else. He might have two kids. Isn’t that so? And in that case, you may have to live the rest of your life alone, never being joined with the one person you love in all the world. Don’t you find that scary?Collection: Kids
Between the time the last train leaves and the first train arrives, the place changes: it's not the same as in daytime.Collection: Lasts
With each passing moment I'm becoming part of the past. There is no future for me, just the past steadily accumulating.Collection: Past
I feel like I've swallowed a cloudy skyCollection: Sky
Life is not like water. Things in life don't necessarily flow over the shortest possible route.Collection: Life
I was reduced to pure concept. My flesh had dissolved; my form had dissipated. I floated in space. Liberated of my corporeal being, but without dispensation to go anywhere else.I was adrift in the void. Somewhere across the fine line separating nightmare from reality.Collection: Reality
Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back. That's part of what it means to be alive. But inside our heads - at least that's where I imagine it - there's a little room where we store those memories. A room like the stacks in this library. And to understand the workings of our own heart we have to keep on making new reference cards. We have to dust things off every once in awhile, let in fresh air, change the water in the flower vases. In other words, you'll live forever in your own private library.Collection: Memories
I think of rivers, of tides. Forests and water gushing out. Rain and lightning. Rocks and shadows. All of these are in me.Collection: Rain
The best way to think about reality, I had decided, was to get as far away from it as possible.Collection: Reality
Time flows in a strange way on Sundays.Collection: Sunday
Sometimes when I look at you, I feel I'm gazing at a distant star. It's dazzling, but the light is from tens of thousands of years ago. Maybe the star doesn't even exist any more. Yet sometimes that light seems more real to me than anything.Collection: Love
Everything, everything seemed once-upon-a-time.Collection: Once Upon A Time
Fate seems to be taking me in some even stranger directions.Collection: Fate
Strong and independent? I’m neither. I’m just being pushed along by reality, whether I like it or not.Collection: Strong
Start making excuses and there's no end to it. I can't live that kind of life.Collection: Kind
In dreams begins responsiblities.Collection: Dream
Most things are forgotten over time. Even the war itself, the life-and-death struggle people went through, is now like something from the distant past. We're so caught up in our everyday lives that events of the past, like ancient stars that have burned out, are no longer in orbit around our minds. There are just too many things we have to think about every day, too many new things we have to learn. New styles, new information, new technology, new terminology ... But still, no matter how much time passes, no matter what takes place in the interim, there are some things we can never assign to oblivion, memories we can never rub away. They remain with us forever, like a touchstone. And for me, what happened in the woods that day is one of these.Collection: Memories
Not everything was lost in the flow of timeCollection: Flow
What's nurtured slowly grows well.Collection: Wells
You can hide memories, but you can’t erase the history that produced them.Collection: Memories
When the fire goes out, you'll start feeling the cold. You'll wake up whether you want to or not.Collection: Fire
Did you ever see anyone shot by a gun without bleeding?Collection: Gun
I have this strange feeling that I'm not myself anymore. It's hard to put into words, but I guess it's like I was fast asleep, and someone came, disassembled me, and hurriedly put me back together again. That sort of feeling.Collection: Numbness
In most cases learning something essential in life requires physical pain.Collection: Pain
Despite your best efforts, people are going to be hurt when it's time for them to be hurt.Collection: Life