2,618 Quotes by Haruki Murakami

No matter what they wish for, no matter how far they go, people can never be anything but themselves. That's all.

I don’t know much about the world, but I do know one thing for sure. If I’m pessimistic, then the adults in this world who are not pessimistic are a bunch of idiots.

跳舞，”羊男说，“只要音乐在响，就尽管跳下去。明白我的话？跳舞，不停地跳舞。不要考虑为什么跳，不要考虑意义不意义，意义那玩意儿本来就是没有的，要是考虑这个，脚步势必停下来。一旦停下来，我就再也爱莫能助了，并且连接你的线索也将全部消失，永远消失。那一来，你就只能在这里生存，只能不由自主地陷进这边的世界。因此不能停住脚步，不管你如何觉得滑稽好笑，也不能半途而废，务必咬紧牙关踩着舞点跳下去。跳着跳着，原先坚固的东西便会一点点酥软，有的东西还没有完全不可救药。能用的全部用上去，全力以赴，不足为惧的。你的确很疲劳，筋疲力竭，惶惶不可终日。谁都有这种时候，觉得一切都错得不可收拾，以致停下脚步。” 我抬起眼睛，再次凝视墙上的暗影。 “但只有跳下去，”羊男继续道，“而且要跳得出类拔萃，跳得大家心悦诚服。这样，我才有可能助你一臂之力。总之一定要跳要舞，只要音乐没停。” 要跳要舞，只要音乐没停。

Haven’t you offered up some part of your Self to someone (or something), and taken on a “narrative” in return? Haven’t we entrusted some part of our personality to some greater System or Order? And if so, has not that System at some stage demanded of us some kind of “insanity”? Is the narrative you now possess really and truly your own? Are your dreams really your own dreams? Might not they be someone else’s visions that could sooner or later turn into nightmares?

People who were picky about their drinks at the bar turned out to be sexually bland. She did not know why she thought this so...Ever since she was 20, she had always been attracted to men with thinning hair. Like Sean Connery.

Smart presidents usually became the target of assassins so people with higher than average intelligence probably did their best to avoid being elected.

I have met many different people in the course of my life, some of whom I have come to know pretty well, but where these three traits are concerned, I had never encountered anyone before Seiji Ozawa with whom I found it so easy and natural to identify. In that sense, he is a precious person to me. It sets my mind at ease to know that there is someone like him in the world.

« Si vous n’avez jamais lu Hamlet au cours de votre vie, c’est comme si vous l’aviez passée au fond d’une mine de charbon ».

The house kept its own time, like the old-fashioned grandfather clock in the living room. People who happened by raised the weights, and as long as the weights were wound, the clock continued ticking away. But with people gone and the weights unattended, whole chunks of time were left to collect in deposits of faded life on the floor.