Quotessence
Home / Authors / Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllNorwegian WoodHaruki MurakamiLifeLoveBooksKafka On The ShoreDeathMurakamiBook Quotes1q84LonelinessJapanese LiteratureInspirationalPainWritingRealitySadnessLife LessonsTimeDreams

Famous Haruki Murakami Quotes

“But like a boat with a twisted rudder, I kept coming back to the same place. I wasn't going anywhere. I was myself, waiting on the shore for me to return. Was that so depressing? Who knows? Maybe that was 'despair.' What Turgenev called 'disillusionment.' Or Dostoyevsky, 'hell.' Or Somerset Maugham, 'reality.' Whatever the label, I figured it was me.”

SelfRealityHellDespairDisillusionmentDostoyevskyMaugham
Book:Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Create image

“Because memory and sensations are so uncertain, so biased, we always rely on a certain reality-call it an alternate reality-to prove the reality of events. To what extent facts we recognize as such really are as they seem, and to what extent these are facts merely because we label them as such, is an impossible distinction to draw. Therefore, in order to pin down reality as reality, we need another reality to relativize the first. Yet that other reality requires a third reality to serve as its grounding. An endless chain is created within our consciousness, and it is the very maintenance of this chain that produces the sensation that we are actually here, that we ourselves exist.”

LifeMindReality
Book:South of the Border, West of the Sun
Create image

“Hay una realidad que demuestra la verdad de un hecho. Porque nuestra memoria y nuestros sentidos son demasiado inseguros, demasiado parciales. Incluso podemos afirmar que muchas veces es imposible discernir hasta qué punto un hecho que creemos percibir es real y a partir de qué punto sólo creemos que lo es. Así que para preservar la realidad como tal, necesitamos otra realidad -una realidad colindante- que la relativice. Pero, a su vez, esta realidad colindante necesita una base para relativizarse a sí misma. Es decir, que hay otra realidad colindante que demuestra, a su vez, que ésta es real. Y esta cadena se extiende indefinidamente dentro de nuestra conciencia y, en un cierto sentido, puede afirmarse que es a través de esta sucesión, a través de la conservación de esta cadena, como adquirimos conciencia de nuestra existencia misma. Pero si esta cadena, casualmente, se rompe, quedamos desconcertados. ¿La realidad está al otro lado del eslabón roto? ¿Está a este lado?”

RealityRealidadReality Check
Book:South of the Border, West of the Sun
Create image

“Because memory and feeling are so uncertain, so subjective, we always rely on some reality - let's call it an alternate reality - to prove events to be true. To what extent the facts we take to be true really are, and to what extent they are facts merely because we call them so, such a distinction cannot be made. Therefore, in order to recognize a reality as reality, we need another reality to relativize the former. But this second reality requires a third as a basis. An infinite chain is created in our consciousness, and maintaining it creates the impression that we exist. However, something may happen that breaks this chain and then we feel lost. What's real? Is reality on this side of the broken chain or on the other?”

RealityMemoriesReality Of Life
Book:South of the Border, West of the Sun
Create image