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Murakami quotes about life. The best quotes from Haruki Murakami's books

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We often find it difficult to find words to describe our feelings, emotions and other complex phenomena in our lives. Haruki Murakami is the writer who succeeds in this. He seems to know what kind of chemistry is happening in human soul, and describes it accurately, aptly, piercingly.

On January 12, the writer turned 67 years old. website recalls the most faithful quotes from the works of Haruki Murakami.

A world without love is like the wind outside the window. Don't touch it, don't breathe it in.
I used to think that people grow up year by year, gradually like this... But it turned out - no. A person grows up instantly.
There are no wrong opinions in the world. There are opinions that do not coincide with ours, that's all.
The older a person is, the more things in his life that cannot be corrected.
Everything that disappears in us - even if it disappears forever - leaves behind holes that will never heal.
By hugging each other, we share our fears.
If everyone believes that everything will end well, there will be nothing to fear in the world.
No matter how hard you try, when it hurts, it hurts.
You need to let your feelings out. It's worse if you stop doing it. Otherwise, they will accumulate and harden inside. And then - die.
I don't like loneliness. I just don’t make unnecessary acquaintances. So as not to be disappointed in people once again.
Apparently, the heart hides in a hard shell and few can crack it. Maybe that's why I can't really love.
Being honest with each other and wanting to help is the main thing.
Any emptiness must be filled with something.
A person is given hope, and he uses it as fuel to live on. Without hope, no “further” is possible.
Our whole reality consists of an endless struggle between what really happened and what we don’t want to remember.
There are no such secrets that do not escape from the heart.
The most important thing is not the big thing that others have come up with, but the small thing that you yourself have come to.
What is loneliness? It's similar to the feeling that comes over you when... rainy evening you stand near the mouth of a large river and watch for a long, long time as huge streams of water flow into the sea.
Memory warms a person from the inside. And at the same time tearing him apart.
When you look at the sea for a long time, you begin to miss people, and when you look at people for a long time, you begin to miss the sea.
If you look from afar, anything seems beautiful.
It often happens that the most important things in the world begin with a trifle.
Move with high efficiency going in the wrong direction is even worse than going nowhere at all.
When you have no one to share your lonely thoughts with, thoughts begin to divide you among themselves.
If everything goes the way you want, then life will become uninteresting.

Murakami's books have been translated into 50 languages and are bestsellers around the world. It’s not surprising, because they reflect numerous global trends, so the writer’s work is close a huge number people. At the same time, Haruki Murakami is not just a significant writer, but also a very extraordinary person. His thoughts on various things are worth getting acquainted with.

Quotes from books

About people and loneliness

1. “A person must at least once in his life find himself in the complete wilderness in order to physically experience loneliness, even if he is suffocating from boredom. To feel what it is like to depend solely on yourself, and in the end to know your essence and gain strength previously unknown.”

2. “Be you anyone: gay, lesbian, normal like most people, a feminist, a fascist pig, a communist, a Hare Krishna. Under any banner, please... This doesn’t concern me at all. What I can't stand are such hollow people. I can’t stand it when these idiots flash before my eyes.”

About music

3. “Playing music is almost the same as flying in the sky.”

About running

About business and choosing a profession

5. “A profession should initially be an act of love. And not a marriage of convenience.”

"Tokyo Legends".

6. “I have a rule: it’s stupid to spend more on rags than you need. Usually jeans and a sweater are enough. But in business I have a little philosophy: the manager should dress the way he would like to see the clients of his establishment. So both visitors and staff seem to be in a better mood, and a kind of internal tension arises. That’s why I always show up to my bars in an expensive suit and always have a tie.”

About the laws of life

7. “So, everything in the world is complex and at the same time very simple. This is the fundamental law that rules the world, he said. - You should always remember this. Things that seem complex and are actually so are very simple in essence if you understand what motives are behind them. It all depends on what you are trying to achieve. Motive is, so to speak, the source of desire. It is important to find this source."

About food and sex

8. “For me, food is more important in life than sex. And sex is like a good dessert. When it’s there, it’s great; when it’s not, it’s not scary, you can do without it. And besides this, there is something to do.”

9. “It’s great when the food is delicious. It helps you feel alive."

Quotes from interviews

About childhood

10. “As a child, I loved three things. I loved to read. I loved music. I loved it. And even taking into account that I was just a child, I could be happy because I knew that I was in love. And these three passions have not changed since my childhood... So much for confidence. If you don't know what you love, you've lost."

11. “I have had many cats, but not one was filled with compassion. They were as selfish as they could be."

About wealth

12. “If you are more or less rich, the best thing about it is that you don’t have to think about money. The best thing you can buy is freedom, time. I don't know how much I earn. At all. I don't know how much taxes I pay. I don't want to think about taxes. I have an accountant and my wife takes care of all this. They don't burden me with this. I'm just working."

About reality

13. “I'm not religious. I only believe in imagination. And that there is not only this reality. The real world and that other, unreal world exist simultaneously. They are both very closely related and dependent on each other. Sometimes it happens that they are mixed. And if I really want it, if I concentrate enough, I can cross to the other side and come back.”

About creative inspiration

14. “When I write, I wake up early in the morning and turn on a vinyl record. Not very loud. After 10 or 15 minutes I forget about the music and just concentrate on what I'm writing."

15. “You can believe me - I’m the best ordinary person. I good husband, I don’t raise my voice at anyone, I never lose my temper. But I don't take any ideas for creativity from my everyday life. When I run, cook or lie on the beach, not a single thought enters my head.”

16. “I live to the drumbeat of everyday things: washing, cooking, ironing. I like doing all this, it really frees my head from thoughts. Only when I am empty am I able to produce something.”

17. “I don't think of myself as an artist. I'm just a guy who can write. Yes".

18. “Sometimes I feel like a storyteller from prehistoric times. I imagine how people are sitting in a cave, they are trapped there, and it is raining outside. But I’m also there with them and telling them stories.”

About books and characters

19. “I like to put things into books that have nothing to do with the rest. If the work contains only what is “relevant,” it will become cramped and stuffy. And if you introduce one after another something that seems to be extraneous, you get the impression of a breath of fresh wind.”

20. “I am not able to make the reader think the way I might like. I simply do not have the right to believe that the reader should perceive my book in any way. We are at the same level, at the same height, so to speak. Because I am a writer, I cannot perceive the text “better” than the reader. If you see the text in your own way, then this is your personal relationship with the text, and I have nothing to object to this.”

21. “My characters relate to me only indirectly. They appear in the narrative and then live on their own. What I want to say is that the narrative and the world must be treated neutrally. If personal motives become present - be it a wife or children - the progress of the presentation will stall. Therefore, you should be neutral, look at everything from an impartial position, so that if possible there is no aftertaste own life. This is the position I choose for myself when I write.”

22. “My goal is The Brothers Karamazov. To write something like this is the peak, the peak. I read “The Karamazovs” at the age of 14–15 and have reread it four times since then. It was wonderful every time. In my opinion this is a perfect piece. From 14 to 20 I read only Russian literature. The closest were, of course, Dostoevsky's works. “The Demons” is a very powerful work, but “The Karamazovs” are unsurpassed.”

23. “The opinion that my prose is “not Japanese” seems very superficial to me. I myself consider myself a Japanese writer. Yes, at first I wanted to become an “international” writer, but over time I realized that I was a Japanese writer, and I couldn’t be anything else. But even at the beginning of this path, I didn’t want to just indiscriminately copy Western styles and rules. I wanted to change Japanese literature from the inside, not the outside. And he invented his own rules for this.”

About bad habits and exercises

24. “I don’t smoke anymore, I quit a long time ago. When I wrote “The Sheep Hunt,” I was still smoking. Then he quit, and in subsequent books there were much fewer smokers. As for - yes, whatever you want. But I don’t take strong drinks, because it makes me immediately fall asleep. In general, I go to bed every day at 9–10 o’clock and before going to bed I always drink a little.”

25. "I'm not really a fan physical exercise. And I don't play sports to improve my health. Rather, we are talking about a kind of metaphysical mechanism. In this way I want to free myself from the body."

No matter how hard you try, when it hurts, it hurts.

The day will come when I will meet someone again. Everything will be very natural - like the movement of planets whose orbits intersect. And we will again hope for some miracle, each on his own, wait for a while, erase our souls - and we will part, no matter what...
Haruki Murakami, Dance, Dance, Dance

There are words that remain in the soul for a lifetime.
Haruki Murakami, "South of the Border, West of the Sun"

Never, never forget me. Remember that I was.

It feels like thanks to the fact that I met you, I was able to fall in love with this world a little.
Haruki Murakami, "Norwegian Wood"

Sometimes I feel unbearably sad, but in general life goes on as usual.
Haruki Murakami, "Norwegian Wood"

Memory warms a person from the inside, and at the same time tears him apart.
Haruki Murakami, "Kafka on the Beach"

I think there's something in you. Or maybe, on the contrary, something is missing... Although, probably, this is the same thing.
Haruki Murakami, "Wonderland Without Brakes and the End of the World"

Listen,” he said, “maybe you and I can join together as a team?” No matter what we undertake, everything turns out so well!
- Where do we start?
- Let's drink beer.
Haruki Murakami "Listen to the Song of the Wind"

How many people live in this world, each of us greedily seeks something in the other, and yet we remain the same infinitely distant, disconnected from each other.

Sometimes it can be terribly pleasant to be with you. Like Christmas summer holidays and a newborn puppy together at once.
Haruki Murakami "My Favorite Sputnik"

Do you have many people in your life who would talk to you about you?
Haruki Murakami "Dance, Dance, Dance"

As long as you love someone with all your heart - at least one person - there is still hope in your life. Even if you are not destined to be together.
Haruki Murakami "1Q84. One thousand unknown hundred and eighty-four. Book 1. April - June"

If you look from afar, anything seems beautiful.
Haruki Murakami "Pinball 1973"

It's better to lose you so that you remain in me forever. But not the other way around...

For me, food is more important in life than sex. And sex is like a good dessert. When it’s there, it’s great; when it’s not, it’s not scary, you can do without it. And besides this, there is something to do.
Haruki Murakami "Wonderland without brakes and the End of the World"

If you think about someone enough, then, of course, you will meet again.

This, of course, is purely my problem, and you probably don’t care, but I don’t sleep with anyone anymore. Because I don't want to forget your touch. It's much more important to me than you think
Haruki Murakami "Norwegian Wood"

As soon as her heart moves, mine echoes it. It's like two boats on the same rope. And you want to cut it, but there is no suitable knife anywhere.
Haruki Murakami "Men Without Women"

I am me and at the same time completely part of you... It’s so natural, as if by itself. Once you get used to it, everything is very simple. It's like flying.
Haruki Murakami "Kafka on the Beach"

Whiskey is a drink that is first looked at. And only when they get tired of it do they take a sip. Just like beautiful women.
Haruki Murakami "Wonderland without brakes and the End of the World"

It’s written all over your face: “I don’t care if they love me or not.” This bothers some people.

Do you like loneliness? You travel alone, you eat alone, you sit in class away from everyone else.
- I don't like loneliness. I just don’t make unnecessary acquaintances. So as not to be disappointed in people once again.
Haruki Murakami, "Norwegian Wood"

You need to let your feelings out. It's worse if you stop doing it. Otherwise, they will accumulate and harden inside. And then die.
Haruki Murakami. Norwegian forest

It wasn't my hand that she needed, but someone else's. She didn't need my warmth, but someone else. I couldn’t get rid of an incomprehensible annoyance at the fact that I was me.
Haruki Murakami. Norwegian forest

“However, no matter how hard I tried to forget everything, something like a clot of cloudy air remained inside me. »
Haruki Murakami. Norwegian forest

Everything you know about me is no more than your own memories!..

This was the first time I experienced such a difficult and sad spring. Rather than this, it would be better if February were repeated three times.
Haruki Murakami "Norwegian Wood"

In our unreliable world, there is nothing more elusive and fragile than trust.
Haruki Murakami "Draw on the Carousel"

Such a pleasant melancholy. Something like the silence of a pine tree from which all the birds have flown away.
Haruki Murakami "Sheep Hunt"

I love you very much, Midori.
- How much? - Like a spring bear.
- Spring bear? - Midori raised her head again. - In what sense, like a spring bear?
- Well, you’re walking alone along a spring field, and from the other side a bear cub with fur as soft as velvet and round eyes comes up to you. And he says to you: “Hello, girl. Let’s hang out with me?” And you cuddle and play with him all day, rolling along a hillock overgrown with clover. Beautiful?
- It's really beautiful.
- That's how much I love you.
Haruki Murakami "Norwegian Wood"

I have always been attracted not by ordinary external beauty, which can be put into a few physical parameters, but by something else, hidden deep inside. There are people who are happy in their hearts when it rains, when there is an earthquake, or when the lights suddenly go out. And I got a thrill from the mysterious and incomprehensible something that attracted me to the opposite sex. Let's call it magnetism. A mysterious force that attracts and absorbs people against their will.
Haruki Murakami "South of the Border, West of the Sun"

“I want you and me to be caught by pirates, stripped naked, pressed face to face and tied with rope.”
– Why exactly?
- These are strange pirates.
- I think no more than you...
Haruki Murakami "Norwegian Wood"

It is very easy to become men without women. It is enough to love a woman deeply, and then she disappears somewhere.

Each of us had problems through the roof. Troubles fell from the sky like rain; We enthusiastically collected them and stuffed them into our pockets. I still don’t understand what the need was for them. We probably confused them with something.
Haruki Murakami "Pinball 1973"

A gentleman is a man who doesn't talk about his taxes paid and the women he slept with.
Haruki Murakami. Men without women

Women from birth are endowed with a special independent body responsible for lying. What, where and how to lie - everyone decides for themselves. However, all women, without exception, at some moment, and often - a very important one - will certainly lie. Of course, they lie about trifles, but this is not the main thing: at the most crucial moment they lie without hesitation or embarrassment. However, most of them do not even blush or change their voice.
Haruki Murakami. Men without women

Since childhood, I also dreamed of having a cat. But I wasn't allowed. Their mother can't stand them. I have never in my life gotten what I really wanted. Never. Don't believe me? You won't understand what this means. You won't have what you want... You get used to this idea and gradually stop even understanding what you need.

Quite a long time ago, when I was still a schoolboy, I saw in an English textbook the following phrase: “arrested in a springtime” - so this is exactly about her smile. Could anyone really blame a warm spring day?
Haruki Murakami. To the princess who is no more

When you don't know what you're looking for, searching becomes difficult.
Haruki Murakami. Men without women

How wonderful it is to reach out, touch and feel someone’s warmth. For how long, without noticing it, I lived without these sensations.
Haruki Murakami. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles

We selected 25 quotes from his books:


Memory warms a person from the inside. And at the same time tearing him apart. "Kafka on the Beach"
Even castles in the air need fresh plaster. " "
I used to think that people grow up year by year, gradually like this... But it turned out - no. A person grows up instantly. "Dance, dance, dance"
The language we speak shapes us as people. "Men Without Women"
A person whose freedom has been taken away will definitely begin to hate someone. " "
A profession should initially be an act of love. And not a marriage of convenience. "Tokyo Legends"
How many people live in this world, each of us greedily seeks something in the other, and yet we remain the same infinitely distant, disconnected from each other. "My favorite sputnik"
I don't like loneliness. I just don’t make unnecessary acquaintances so as not to be disappointed in people again. "Norwegian Wood"
Suffering is a personal choice. " "
We think about different things every day. Moreover, we by no means live for the sake of thinking, but we hardly think in order to live. "Tokyo Legends"
When you feel bad, imagine that you are happy. It's not that difficult. "South of the Border, West of the Sun"
It seems that when you don’t think about yourself, you become closer to yourself. "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle"
Harmony is far from the only thing that binds human hearts together. Common torments unite people much more strongly. General wounds. Common fears. There is no peace without a cry of pain, just as there is no peace without shed blood or forgiveness without irreparable losses. This is what underlies true, not abstract harmony... ""
They say in vain that you become wiser with age. As some Russian writer noted, it is only character that can change with age; a person’s limitations do not change until death... Sometimes these Russians say very sensible things. Is it because in winter you generally think better? "Sheep Hunt"
There is only one reality. Always. No matter what happens to you. Reality, no matter where you look, is a very lonely and cold thing. "1Q84. One thousand unknown hundred and eighty-four. Book 1. April - June"
Talking to a person you don’t like anything about is indecent. "The Promised Land"

Everyone loves self-will, but fears freedom. "The Promised Land"
Moving with high efficiency in the wrong direction is even worse than not moving anywhere at all. "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle"
No matter how much we bury our memories... the story of our life cannot be erased. And it’s better not to forget about this. History cannot be erased or remade. It's like destroying yourself. " "
Perhaps, something similar happens to everyone at least once in their life: you begin to hate a person for no reason. The trouble is that the opposite side, as a rule, experiences the same feelings. "Ghosts of Lexington"
On the road you need a travel companion, in life you need sympathy. "Kafka on the Beach"
If you really want to know something, pay the price. "Aftergloom"

Reading philosophical literature is not only fashionable, but also useful. The sayings of thinkers help to better understand life and put everything in its place. Some statements immerse a person in his inner world, others inspire, give optimism and give strength to live. In the works of Haruki Murakami you will find both sad and optimistic statements. We invite you to recall quotes and aphorisms from the works of the famous Japanese writer. Our selection includes best sayings thinker, which should be on the lips of every educated person.

Haruki Murakami is a priest, writer, philosopher and translator of our time. Without any exaggeration, his work can be called genius. The writer continues to delight connoisseurs today Japanese culture, and literature in particular, new works. Murakami's works are currently translated into more than a hundred languages around the world. His colossal success is also evidenced by prestigious awards, including the Franz Kafka Prize, the Jerusalem Prize, and the World Fantasy Prize for the best novel. In addition, his works have been among the top ten more than once best books according to version The New York Times.

The most important thing is not the big thing that others have come up with, but the small thing that you yourself have come to...

Your own small victories in life play big role than someone else's great achievements.

It’s already twenty... I feel like a fool. I'm not ready for this age yet. Strange condition. It was as if I had been pushed out.

It doesn't matter how old you really are, what matters is how you feel.

Never lose your individuality and follow only your preferences.

Memory warms a person from the inside. And at the same time tearing him apart.

You need to save in your memory only those moments that will warm your soul, and not torment it.

Everyone has the same happiness, but each person is unhappy in his own way.

Some are happy that they are simply living, while for others a whole fortune will not be enough.

I used to think that people grow up year by year, gradually like this... But it turned out - no. A person grows up instantly.

One event can turn a child into an adult.

That's how school works. The most important thing What we learn there is that we learn all the most important things not there.

At school they teach only formalities, life itself teaches the art of living...

Don't pay attention to anyone and if you think you can become happy, don't miss this chance and be happy. As I can judge from my own experience, in life there are such chances once or twice - and you miss them, and if you miss them, you regret it for the rest of your life.

You need to seize the moment when you can become happy, because happiness can last a lifetime.

The best people become the best because they believe in their abilities from the very beginning.

If you believe in yourself, consider that success is in your hands!

Errors are the punctuation marks of life, without which, like in the text, there will be no meaning.

Mistakes are made to teach us something.

Don't expect too much - you won't be disappointed.

Demand the minimum from life, then you will not be disappointed, but satisfied.

I don't like loneliness. I just don’t make unnecessary acquaintances so as not to be disappointed in people again.

There is no need for unnecessary acquaintances, but there must be those that will bring joy and pleasure, not disappointment.

From the novel Norwegian Wood

It feels like thanks to the fact that I met you, I was able to fall in love with this world a little.

One person can decorate this world and teach you to enjoy life.

The world is spacious, filled with amazing things and strange people.

There seem to be more strange people in it.

Don't feel sorry for yourself. Only nonentities feel sorry for themselves.

Sit down, think, calm down, as a last resort sympathize with yourself, but in no case regret.

Our life cannot be measured with a ruler and at the corners with a protractor.

Some events are not something difficult to measure, they are almost impossible to describe.

I don't feel anything. No sadness, no sadness, no bitterness. And no memories at all.

This is impossible, because feelings are life, their absence is just existence.

Being honest with each other and wanting to help is the main thing.

Only a few know about this, everyone thinks that main goal- this is to get as rich as possible.

There is no justice in the world, even in principle. It's not my fault. Initially, everything was arranged this way.

What's the point of fighting for it then?

If I relax now, I'll fall apart. From the very beginning I lived like this, and now this is the only way I can live. If I relax once, then I won’t be able to return. I will crumble into pieces and it will take me somewhere.

It’s also impossible to live in tension all the time...

You need to let your feelings out. It's worse if you stop doing it. Otherwise, they will accumulate and harden inside. And then die.

Why then is no one embarrassed to express anger and hatred, and everyone carefully hides love and kindness?

I hated school to death, so I never skipped school. All the time I thought: will I really give in? Give in once and... it's over. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to control myself later.

Willpower helps you live and overcome difficulties, school is one of them...

Sometimes I feel unbearably sad, but in general life goes on as usual.

There is simply no life without sadness.

The death of a person leaves behind small amazing memories.

First it leaves the pain of loss, then grief, then memories remain...

Only unreliable memories or unreliable thoughts can be put into such an unreliable vessel as text on paper.

If you doubt something, put it all on paper and see how it looks...

About love

When you love someone, you look for what you lack. Therefore, when you think about a loved one, it is always difficult. One way or another. It’s like you’re entering a painfully familiar room that you haven’t been in for a very long time.

Love is not only joy, but also pain, it can come not only from separation, but also from worries for a loved one.

You see, sometimes people fall in love with each other just like that, without any logic. They just like each other - and even if you crack. It's called love. When you grow up a little more and they buy you a bra, you will understand this yourself.

Love comes with age...

I don't just want to sleep with you. I want to get married so I can share with you everything that is inside you.

Sleeping with someone and sleeping with your wife are two different things.

It’s great when someone loves someone, and if this love is from the heart, then no one rushes through labyrinths.

Understanding that you are loved gives you wings and helps you live.

It’s written on your face: “I don’t care if they love me or not.” This bothers some people.

Is it possible to live without love?

I will find a person who will think about me one hundred percent and love me all year round, and I will make sure that he will be mine.

It’s called, I decided to build my own destiny...

Apparently, the heart hides in a hard shell, and few can crack it. Maybe that's why I can't really love.