Quotes from book
Kafka on the Shore

Kafka on the Shore
Haruki MurakamiOriginal title 海辺のカフカ (Japanese, 2002)

Kafka on the Shore is a 2002 novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. Its 2005 English translation was among "The 10 Best Books of 2005" from The New York Times and received the World Fantasy Award for 2006.

Haruki Murakami photo

“But intolerant, narrow minds with no imagination are like parasites that transform the host, change form, and continue to thrive. They're a lost cause, and I don't want anyone like that coming in here.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami photo

“Does G get angry because it follows F in the alphabet? Does page 68 in a book start a revolution because it follows 67?”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami photo

“But metaphors help eliminate what separates you and me.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami photo

“But if you knew you might not be able to see it again tomorrow, everything would suddenly become special and precious, wouldn’t it?”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami photo

“I go back to the reading room, where I sink down in the sofa and into the world of The Arabian Nights. Slowly, like a movie fadeout, the real world evaporates. I'm alone, inside the world of the story. My favourite feeling in the world.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami photo

“Listen up—there’s no war that will end all wars,’ Crow tells me. ‘War breeds war. Lapping up the blood shed by violence, feeding on wounded flesh. War is a perfect, self-contained being. You need to know that.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami photo

“I think of rivers, of tides. Forests and water gushing out. Rain and lightning. Rocks and shadows. All of these are in me.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami photo

“Nakata's empty inside… Do you know what it means to be completely empty? Being empty is like a vacant house. An unlocked, vacant house. Anybody can come in, anytime they want. That's what scares me the most”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami photo

“Beyond the edge of the world there’s a space where emptiness and substance neatly overlap, where past and future form a continuous, endless loop. And, hovering about, there are signs no one has ever read, chords no one has ever heard.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami photo

“This is the extent of his knowledge of the sea: it was very big, it was salty, and fish lived there.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami photo

“My grandpa always said asking a question is embarrassing for a moment, but not asking is embarrassing for a lifetime.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami photo

“Artists are those who can evade the verbose.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami photo

“Having an object that symbolizes freedom might make a person happier than actually getting the freedom it represents.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami photo

“A deserted library in the morning - there's something about it that really gets to me. All possible words and ideas are there, resting peacefully.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami photo

“He felt as if his heart had dried up. I needed her he thought. I needed someone like her to fill the void inside me. But I wasn’t able to fill the void inside her. Until the bitter end, the emptiness inside her was hers alone.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami photo

“In traveling, a companion, in life, compassion.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami photo

“I don’t know what it means to live.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami photo

“Time expands, then contracts, all in tune with the stirrings of the heart.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore