The world would be a pretty dull place if it were made up only of the first-rate, right? Haruki Murakami More Quotes by Haruki Murakami More Quotes From Haruki Murakami In a sense, I'm the one who ruined me: I did it myself. Haruki Murakami ruined My imagination is a kind of animal. So what I do is keep it alive. Haruki Murakami alive imagination animal If you do anything out of the ordinary, you can be sure someone, somewhere, will get upset. Haruki Murakami upset ifs ordinary Reading was like an addiction; I read while I ate, on the train, in bed until late at night, in school, where I'd keep the book hidden so I could read during class. Before long I bought a small stereo and spent all my time in my room, listening to jazz records. But I had almost no desire to talk to anyone about the experience I gained through books and music. I felt happy just being me and no one else. In that sense I could be called a stack-up loner. Haruki Murakami reading book school 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. Haruki Murakami life-lesson return struggle 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. Haruki Murakami feds hungry love 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. Haruki Murakami breakup hurt love Will you wait for me forever? Haruki Murakami wait-for-me waiting forever I want you always to remember me. Will you remember that I existed, and that I stood next to you here like this? Haruki Murakami next want remember As if to build a fence around the fatal emptiness inside her, she had to create a sunny person that she became. But if you peeled away the ornamental egos that she had built, there was only an abbys of nothingness and the intense thirst that came with it. Though she tried to forget it, the nothingness would visit her periodically - on a lonely rainy afternoon, or at dawn when she woke up from a nightmare. What she needed at such times was to be held by someone, anyone. Haruki Murakami ego lonely dawn 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. Haruki Murakami eye perfect listening You always look so cool, like no matter what happens, it’s got nothing to do with you, but you’re not really like that. In your own way, you’re out there fighting as hard as you can, even if other people can’t tell by looking at you. Haruki Murakami fighting people looks Possibilities are like cancer. The more I think about them, the more they multiply, and there's no way to stop them. I'm out of control. Haruki Murakami cancer way thinking It's like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story. Haruki Murakami stories said happiness If you miss the bus, miss the train, you’d be left behind. So everyone says, let’s get on the train, let’s get on the bus and go faster and get rich... I just didn’t like that kind of lifestyle. I love to read books, to listen to music. Haruki Murakami kind missing book We were, the two of us, still fragmentary beings, just beginning to sense the presence of an unexpected, to be-aquired reality that would fill us and make us whole. Haruki Murakami unexpected two reality I was confident that I was a special person. But time slowly chips away at life. People don't just die when their time comes. They gradually die away, from the inside. And finally the day comes when you have to settle accounts. Nobody can escape it. People have to pay the price for what they've received. I have only just learned that truth. Haruki Murakami pay-the-price special people People fall in love without reason, without even wanting to. You can't predict it. That's love. Haruki Murakami best-love falling-in-love people What if I’ve forgotten the most important thing? What if somewhere inside me there is a dark limbo where all the truly important memories are heaped and slowly turning into mud?...the thought fills me with an almost unbearable sorrow. Haruki Murakami what-if dark memories Narrow minds devoid of imagination. Intolerance, theories cut off from reality, empty terminology, usurped ideals, inflexible systems. Those are the things that really frighten me. What I absolutely fear and loathe. Haruki Murakami cutting imagination reality