“I've always liked libraries. They're quiet and full of books and full of knowledge.”
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Quotes from book
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Haruki Murakami
Original title
世界の終りとハードボイルド・ワンダーランド
(Japanese, 1985)
Hyperkinetic and relentlessly inventive, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is Haruki Murakami’s deep dive into the very nature of consciousness. Across two parallel narratives, Murakami draws readers into a mind-bending universe in which Lauren Bacall, Bob Dylan, a split-brained data processor, a deranged scientist, his shockingly undemure granddaughter, and various thugs, librarians, and subterranean monsters collide to dazzling effect. What emerges is a novel that is at once hilariously funny and a deeply serious meditation on the nature and uses of the mind.
“two people can sleep in the same bed and still be alone when they close their eyes”
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Variant: It takes years to build up, it takes moments to destroy.
Source: Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985), Chapter 19: Hamburgers,Skyline and Deadline
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Context: Once again, life had a lesson to teach me: It takes years to build up, it takes moments to destroy. Sure, I'd gotten tired of this tiny space, but I'd had a good home here. In the time it takes to swill two cans of beer, all had had sublimed like morning mist. My job, my whiskey, my peace and quiet, my solitude, my Sormerset Maugham, and John Ford collections-all of it trashed and worthless.
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985), Chapter Nine: Appetite, Disappointment, Leningrad
Source: Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985), Chapter 32, Shadow in the Throes of Death
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Context: First, about the mind. You tell me there is no fighting or hatred or desire in the Town. That this is a beautiful dream, and I do want your happiness. But the absence of fighting or hatred or desire also means the opposites do not exist either. No joy, no communion, no love. Only where there is disillusionment and depression and sorrow does happiness arise; without the despair of loss, there is no hope.
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985), Chapter 16: The Coming of Winter
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985), Chapter Thirteen: Frankfurt, Door, Independent Operants
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985)
Source: Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985), Chapter 24: Shadow Grounds
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
“I am here, alone, at the end of the world. I reach out and touch nothing.”.”
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
“Death leaves cans of shaving cream half-used.”
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
“A secret's a secret because you don't let people in on it.”
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
“Everything, everything seemed once-upon-a-time.”
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985), Chapter 38, Escape
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985), Chapter 18:
