Quotes from book

Norwegian Wood

“With my eyes closed, I would touch a familiar book and draw its fragrance deep inside me. This was enough to make me happy.”

“She was the kind of person who took care of things by herself. She’d never ask anybody for advice or help. It wasn’t a matter of pride, I think. She just did what seemed natural to her.”

“What if I’ve forgotten the most important thing?”

“People leave strange little memories of themselves behind when they die.”

“I’m not totally mad at you. I’m just sad. You’re all locked up in that little world of yours, and when I try knocking on the door, you just sort of look up for a second and go right back inside.”

“sometimes I think I've got this hard kernel in my heart, and nothing much can get inside it. I doubt if I can really love anybody.”

“We're all kind of weird and twisted and drowning.”

“When you fall in love, the natural thing to do is give yourself to it.”

“I want you always to remember me. Will you remember that I existed, and that I stood next to you here like this?”

“When it's raining like this," said Naoko, "it feels as if we're the only ones in the world. I wish it would just keep raining so the three of us could stay together.”

“My arm was not what she needed, but the arm of someone else. My warmth was not what she needed, but the warmth of someone else.”

“As long as I kept my body moving I could forget about the emptiness inside.”

“How much do you love me?' Midori asked.

'Enough to melt all the tigers in the world to butter,' I said.”

“The years nineteen and twenty are a crucial stage in the maturation of character, and if you allow yourself to become warped when you're that age, it will cause you pain when you're older.”

“I don't want our relationship to end like this. You're one of the very few friends I have, and it hurts not being able to see you. When am I going to be able to talk to you? I want you to tell me that much, at least.”

“Letters are just pieces of paper," I said. "Burn them, and what stays in your heart will stay; keep them, and what vanishes will vanish.”

“When your feelings build up and harden and die inside, then you're in big trouble.”

“All of us are imperfect human beings living in an imperfect world.”

“I don't go out of my way to make friends, that's all.”