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Haruki Murakami Quotes

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Famous Haruki Murakami Quotes

“La vida es esencialmente injusta. De eso no cabe la menor duda. Pero creo que incluso de las situaciones injustas es posible extraer lo que de "justicia" haya en ellas. Puede que ello cueste tiempo y esfuerzo. Y puede que ese tiempo y esfuerzo sean en vano. Decidir si merece o no la pena intentar extraer esa "justicia" es algo que, queda al criterio de cada uno.”

“Eifersucht war - das hatte Tsukuru durch diesen Traum begriffen - das trostloseste Gefängnis, das es auf der Welt gab. Denn es war ein Gefängnis, in das der Gefangene sich gewissermaßen selbst einsperrte. Niemand zwang ihn dazu. Er ging aus freien Stücken hinein, schloss von innen ab und warf den Schlüssel durch das Gitter nach außen. Und niemand auf der ganzen Welt wusste, dass er dort eingekerkert war. Nur wenn er sich selbst dazu entschloss, konnte er es verlassen. Denn das Gefängnis befand sich in seinem Inneren. Doch er war außerstande, diesen Entschluss zu fassen. Sein Herz war von einer unüberwindlichen Mauer umgeben. Das war die wahre Natur der Eifersucht.”

“Shimamoto was in charge of the records. She'd take one from its jacket, place it carefully on the turntable without touching the grooves with her fingers, and, after making sure to brush the cartridge free of any dust with a tiny brush, lower the needle ever so gently onto the record. When the record was finished, she'd spray it and wipe it with a felt cloth. Finally she'd return the record to its jacket and its proper place on the shelf. Her father had taught her this procedure, and she followed his instructions with a terribly serious look on her face, her eyes narrowed, her breath held in check. Meanwhile, I was on the sofa, watching her every move. Only when the record was safely back on the shelf did she turn to me and give a little smile. And every time, this thought hit me: It wasn't a record she was handling. It was a fragile soul inside a glass bottle.”

“When I listen to this music I feel like I’m in a wide-open, empty place. It’s a vast space, with nothing to close it off. No walls, no ceiling. I don’t need to think, don’t need to say anything, or do anything. Just being there is enough. I close my eyes and give myself up to the beautiful strings. There’s no headaches, no sensitivity to cold… Everything is simply beautiful, peaceful, flowing. I can just be.”

“Le mal du pays.” The quiet, melancholy music gradually gave shape to the undefined sadness enveloping his heart, as if countless microscopic bits of pollen adhered to an invisible being concealed in the air, ultimately revealing, slowly and silently, its shape. This time the being took on the shape of Sara—Sara in her mint-green short-sleeved dress. The ache in his heart returned. Not an intense pain, but the memory of intense pain. What did you expect? Tsukuru asked himself. A basically empty vessel has become empty once again. Who can you complain to about that? People come to him, discover how empty he is, and leave. What’s left is an empty, perhaps even emptier, Tsukuru Tazaki, all alone. Isn’t that all there is to it?”

“Life's funny like that." "A laugh a minute." She put on Danny Boy so I could sing it again. But if you fall as all flowers'er dying, And you are, as dead you well may be, I'll come and find the place where you are lying, And kneel and say an ave there for thee. but come ye back when summer's in― The second time through made me terribly sad. "send me letters from wherever it is you're going," she said, touching me.”

“So that's how we live our lives. No matter how deep and fatal the loss, no matter how important the thing that's stolen from us--that's snatched right out of our hands--even if we are left completely changed, with only the outer layer of skin from before, we continue to play out our lives this way, in silence. We draw ever nearer to the end of our allotted span of time, bidding it farewell as it trails off behind. Repeating, often adroitly, the endless deeds of the everyday. Leaving behind a feeling of immeasurable emptiness.”

“We each have our own paths to follow, in our places. Like Ao said, "There's no going back." Sorrow surged then, silently, like water inside him. A formless, transparent sorrow. A sorrow he could touch, yet something that was also far away, out of reach. Pain struck him, as if gouging out his chest, and he could barely breathe.”

“Έβλεπα κι άκουγα τα δάκρυά μου να χύνονται μέσα στη λευκή λίμνη του φεγγαρόφωτου, που τα ρουφούσε και τ'αφομοίωνε σαν να ήταν πάντα μέρος του φωτός. Καθώς έπεφταν τα δάκρυα, αντανακλούσαν το φως του φεγγαριού κι άσταρφταν σαν όμορφοι κρύσταλλοι. Μετά παρατήρησα ότι κι η σκιά μου έκλαιγε, χύνοντας καθαρά, ολοστρόγγυλα δάκρυα σκιάς. Έχεις δει ποτέ τη σκιά των δακρύων, κύριε Κουρδιστό Πουλί; Δεν μοιάζει καθόλου με τις συνηθισμένες σκιές. Καθόλου μα καθόλου. Έρχετ' εδώ από κάποιον άλλο, μακρινό κόσμο, ειδικά για τις καρδιές μας. Ή μπορεί και όχι. Εκείνη τη στιγμή μου πέρασε η ιδέα ότι τα δάκρυα που έχυνε η σκιά μου μπορεί να ήταν τα πραγματικά κι ότι αυτά που έχυνα εγώ ήταν οι πραγματιές σκιές. Δεν το καταλαβαίνεις, είμαι σίγουρη, κύριε Κουρδιστό Πουλί. Όταν ένα γυμνό δεκαεφτάχρονο κορίτσι δακρύζει στο φεγγαρόφωτο, όλα είναι πιθανά. Αυτή είναι η αλήθεια.”

“I go out on the porch and gaze up at the stars twinkling above, the random scattering of millions of stars. Even in a planetarium you wouldn't find as many. Some of them really look big and distinct, like if you reached your hand out intently you could touch them. The whole thing is breathtaking. Not just beautiful though--the stars like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they're watching me. What I've done up till now, what I'm going to do--they know it all. Nothing gets past their watchful eyes. As I sit there under the shining night sky, again a violent fear takes hold of me. My heart's pounding a mile a minute, and I can barely breathe. All these millions of stars looking down on me, and I've never given them more than a passing thought before. Bot just stars--how many other things haven't I noticed in the world, things I know nothing about? I suddenly feel helpless, completely powerless. And I know I'll never outrun that awful feeling. (135)”

“Eravamo state meravigliose compagne di viaggio, ma in fondo non eravamo che solitari aggregati metallici che disegnavano ognuno la propria orbita. In lontananza potremmo anche essere belle a vedersi, come stelle cadenti. Ma in realtà non siamo che prigioniere, ognuna confinata nel proprio spazio, senza la possibilità di andare da nessun’altra parte. Quando le orbite dei nostri satelliti per caso si incrociano, le nostre facce si incontrano. E forse, chissà, anche le nostre anime vengono a contatto. Ma questo non dura che un attimo. Un istante dopo, ci ritroviamo ognuna nella propria assoluta solitudine. Fino al giorno in cui bruceremo e saremo completamente azzerate.”

“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.”