Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
55 quotes
"Making up for lost time?""Yes," I say. "A lot of things were stolen from my childhood. Lots of important things. And now I have to get them back." "In order to keep on living."I"
"Being with her I feel a pain, like a frozen knife stuck in my chest. An awful pain, but the funny thing is I'm thankful for it. It's like that frozen pain and my very existence are one."
"Writing things was important, wasn't it? Nakata asked.'Yes, it was. The process of writing was important. Even though the finished product is completely meaningless."
"You know what I should do?" Hoshino asked excited. "Of course," the cat said. "What'd I tell you? Cats know everything. Not like dogs."
"In traveling, a companion, in life, compassion,'" she repeats, making sure of it. If she had paper and pencil, it wouldn't surprise me if she wrote it down. "So what does that really mean? In simple terms." I think it over. It takes me a while to gather my thoughts, but she waits patiently. "I think it means," I say, "that chance encounters are what keep us going. In simple terms."
"Things change everyday. With each new dawn, it is not the same world as before. And you’re not the same person you were either."
"The journey I'm taking is inside me. Just like blood travels down veins, what I'm seeing is my inner self and what seems threatening is just the echo of the fear in my heart."
"A healthy amount of fear and respect might be a good idea"
"Listen up - there's no war that will end all wars."
"In dreams begins responsiblities."
"It's all a question of imagination. Our responsibility begins with the power to imagine."
"All alone in an unfamiliar place, like some solitary explorer who's lost his compass and his map. Is this what it means to be free?"
"I don't think I'd want Mickey Mouse pimping for me anyway."
"a question is embarrassing for a moment, but not asking is embarrassing for a lifetime"
"The Earth, time, concepts, love, life, faith justice, evil - they're all fluid and in transition. They don't stay in one form or in one place forever. The whole universe is like some big FedEx box."
"Artists are those who can evade the verbose."
"I'm alone, inside the world of the story. My favorite feeling in the world."
"I'm alone inside the world of the story, my favorite feeling in the world."
"Not just beautiful, though--the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they're watching me."
"Surfing's a more profound kind of sport than it looks. When you surf, you learn not to fight the power of nature, even if it gets violent."
"Being with her I feel a pain, like a frozen knife stuck in my chest. An awful pain, but the funny thing is I'm thankful for it. It's like that frozen pain and my very existence ar"
"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."
"Mr. Nakata, this world is a terribly violent place. And nobody can escape the violence. Please keep that in mind. You can't be too cautious. The same holds true for cats and human beings."
"Once you’re lost, you panic. You’re in total despair, not knowing what to do. I hate it when that happens. Sex can be a real pain that way, ‘cause when you get in the mood all you can think about is what’s right under your nose - that’s sex, all right."
"Adults constantly raise the bar on smart children, precisely because they're able to handle it. The children get overwhelmed by the tasks in front of them and gradually lose the sort of openness and sense of accomplishment they innately have. When they're treated like that, children start to crawl inside a shell and keep everything inside. It takes a lot of time and effort to get them to open up again. Kids' hearts are malleable, but once they gel it's hard to get them back the way they were."