Haruki Murakami quotes

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Haruki Murakami

Birthdate: 12. January 1949

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer. His books and stories have been bestsellers in Japan as well as internationally, with his work being translated into 50 languages and selling millions of copies outside his native country. The critical acclaim for his fiction and non-fiction has led to numerous awards, in Japan and internationally, including the World Fantasy Award and the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award . His oeuvre received, for example, the Franz Kafka Prize and the Jerusalem Prize .

Murakami's most notable works include A Wild Sheep Chase , Norwegian Wood , The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle , Kafka on the Shore , and 1Q84 . He has also translated into Japanese English works by writers ranging from Raymond Carver to J. D. Salinger. His fiction, still criticized by Japan's literary establishment as un-Japanese, was influenced by Western writers from Chandler to Vonnegut by way of Brautigan. It is frequently surrealistic and melancholic or fatalistic, marked by a Kafkaesque rendition of the "recurrent themes of alienation and loneliness" he weaves into his narratives. He is also considered an important figure in postmodern literature. Steven Poole of The Guardian praised Murakami as "among the world's greatest living novelists" for his works and achievements.

Photo: Galoren.com, Own work / CC BY-SA 4.0

Works

Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami

Norwegian Wood

Haruki Murakami

1Q84

Haruki Murakami

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Haruki Murakami

Sputnik Sweetheart

Haruki Murakami

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Haruki Murakami

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Haruki Murakami

Dance Dance Dance

Haruki Murakami

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

Haruki Murakami

South of the Border, West of the Sun

Haruki Murakami

After Dark

Haruki Murakami

A Wild Sheep Chase

Haruki Murakami

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

Haruki Murakami

The Elephant Vanishes

Haruki Murakami

Hear the Wind Sing

Haruki Murakami

The Strange Library

Haruki Murakami

Pinball, 1973

Haruki Murakami

Man-Eating Cats

Haruki Murakami

Barn Burning

Haruki Murakami

Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche

Haruki Murakami

Quotes Haruki Murakami

„I dream. Sometimes I think that’s the only right thing to do. To dream, to live in the world of dreams. But it doesn’t last forever. Wakefulness always comes to take me back.“

— Haruki Murakami, book Sputnik Sweetheart

Source: Sputnik Sweetheart

World, Dreams, Thinking

„I want to believe you, but if that's true, I just don't get it. Why does loving somebody mean you have to hurt them just as much? I mean, if that's the way it goes, what's the point of loving someone?“

— Haruki Murakami, book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Love, Way, Hurt

„Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn't something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn't get in, and walk through it, step by step. There's no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That's the kind of sandstorm you need to imagine.“

— Haruki Murakami, book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore (2002), Chapter One

Death, Fate, Imagination, Sense

„Every once in a while she'll get worked up and cry like that. But that's ok. She's letting her feelings out. The scary thing is not being able to do that. Then your feelings build up and harden and die inside. That's when you're in big trouble.“

— Haruki Murakami, book Norwegian Wood

Source: Norwegian Wood

Feeling, Cry

„But knowing what I don’t want to do doesn’t help me figure out what I do want to do. I could do just about anything if somebody made me. But I don’t have an image of the one thing I really want to do. That’s my problem now. I can’t find the image.“

— Haruki Murakami, book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Problem, Help

„Once the storm is over you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about.“

— Haruki Murakami, book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore (2002)
Context: And you really will have to make it through that violent, metaphysical, symbolic storm. No matter how metaphysical or symbolic it might be, make no mistake about it: it will cut through flesh like a thousand razor blades. People will bleed there, and you will bleed too. Hot, red blood. You'll catch that blood in your hands, your own blood and the blood of others. And once the storm is over you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about.

Chapter One

Personality

„two people can sleep in the same bed and still be alone when they close their eyes“

— Haruki Murakami, book Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

People, Sleep

„I get irritated, I get upset. Especially when I'm in a hurry. But I see it all as part of our training. To get irritated is to lose our way in life.“

— Haruki Murakami, book A Wild Sheep Chase

Source: A Wild Sheep Chase

Life, Way, Parting, Training

„I move, therefore I am.“

— Haruki Murakami, book 1Q84

Source: 1Q84