100 Top & Most Popular Haruki Murakami Quotes

1. “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”
2. “What we see before us is just one tiny part of the world. We get in the habit of thinking, this is the world, but that’s not true at all.”
3. “Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.”
4. “Sometimes when I look at you, I feel I’m gazing at a distant star. It’s dazzling, but the light is from tens of thousands of years ago. Maybe the star doesn’t even exist any more. Yet sometimes that light seems more real to me than anything.”
5. “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”
6. “I want to be the kind of person who can do that. Move on and forgive people and be healthy and happy. It seems like an easy thing to do in my head. But it’s not so easy when you try it in real life.”
7. “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, 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.”
8. “What happens when people open their hearts?” “They get better.”
9. “The most important thing we learn at school is the fact that the most important things can’t be learned at school.”
10. “In this world, there are things you can only do alone, and things you can only do with somebody else. It’s important to combine the two in just the right amount.”
11. “But even so, every now and then I would feel a violent stab of loneliness. The very water I drink, the very air I breathe, would feel like long, sharp needles. The pages of a book in my hands would take on the threatening metallic gleam of razor blades. I could hear the roots of loneliness creeping through me when the world was hushed at four o’clock in the morning.”
12. “I dream. Sometimes I think that’s the only right thing to do.”
13. “Nobody likes being alone that much. I don’t go out of my way to make friends, that’s all. It just leads to disappointment.”
14. “What happens when people open their hearts?” “They get better.”
15. “The only way to escape the mundane is for you to constantly be evolving.”
16. “But who can say what’s best? That’s why you need to grab whatever chance you have of happiness where you find it, and not worry about other people too much. My experience tells me that we get no more than two or three such chances in a life time, and if we let them go, we regret it for the rest of our lives.”
17. “A certain type of perfection can only be realized through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect.”
18. “Every one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That’s part of what it means to be alive.”
19. “The pure present is an ungraspable advance of the past devouring the future. In truth, all sensation is already memory.”
20. “But who can say what’s best? That’s why you need to grab whatever chance you have of happiness where you find it, and not worry about other people too much. My experience tells me that we get no more than two or three such chances in a life time, and if we let them go, we regret it for the rest of

21. “If you remember me, then I don’t care if everyone else forgets.”
22. “It’s like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.”
23. “I’m not strange, weird, off, nor crazy, my reality is just different from yours.”
24. “Silence, I discover, is something you can actually hear.”
25. “I have a million things to talk to you about. All I want in this world is you. I want to see you and talk. I want the two of us to begin everything from the beginning.”
26. “I think you still love me, but we can’t escape the fact that I’m not enough for you. I knew this was going to happen. So I’m not blaming you for falling in love with another woman. I’m not angry, either. I should be, but I’m not. I just feel pain. A lot of pain. I thought I could imagine how much this would hurt, but I was wrong.”
27. “Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back. That’s part of what it means to be alive.”
28. “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”
29. “The most important thing is to be able to enjoy your life without being fooled by things.”
30. “If you can love someone with your whole heart, even one person, then there’s salvation in life. Even if you can’t get together with that person.”
31. “Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn’t stop for anybody.”
32. “You’re always you, and that don’t change, and you’re always changing, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
33. “I’m a pessimist, but at least I’m a pessimist with hope.”
34. “What happens when people open their hearts? They get better.”
35. “I think you have to be a little bit crazy to be in love.”
36. “People don’t always get what they deserve in this world.”
37. “You know, when it works, love is pretty amazing. It’s not overrated. There’s a reason for all those songs.”
38. “All I do is keep on running in my own cozy, homemade void, my own nostalgic silence. And this is a pretty wonderful thing. No matter what anybody else says.”
39. “It’s like the people who believe they’ll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, but who learn it doesn’t work that way. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you.”
40. “I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.”
41. “In a world filled with darkness and chaos, you must find the light and cling to it.”
42. “The end of the world is a concept only humans have. We see the world as if it goes on forever, we are very lucky to have this short time to be here and to take part in this glorious experience that is consciousness.”
43. “It’s strange. I felt less lonely when I didn’t know you.”
44. “My body was taking me one way, my emotions another, and my mind was off somewhere else.”
45. “You can’t please everybody. That’s why I recommend you please yourself first.”
46. “I don’t know if there’s any meaning in life. But if there is, then the thing that’s important is just being who you are.”
47. “What’s important is not what they think of me, but what I think of them.”
48. “In the midst of great joy, do not promise anyone anything.

49. “Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.”
50. “The human heart is like a night bird. Silently waiting for something, and when the time comes, it flies straight toward it.”
51. “I’m always home, wherever I am.”
52. “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 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.”
53. “But who can say what’s best? That’s why you need to grab whatever chance you have of happiness where you find it, and not worry about other people too much. My experience tells me that we get no more than two or three such chances in a life time, and if we let them go, we regret it for the rest of our lives.”
54. “If you can love someone with your whole heart, even one person, then there’s salvation in life. Even if you can’t get together with that person.”
55. “People fall in love without reason, without even wanting to. You can’t predict it. That’s love.”
56. “But I didn’t understand then. That I could hurt somebody so badly she would never recover. That a person can, just by living, damage another human being beyond repair.”
57. “Each time something like this happens, I feel as if I’m being deprived of part of my life. As if I’m losing something, but what it is that’s slipping away from me I can never pin down.”
58. “Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Only assholes do that.”
59. “It’s not that I don’t like people. It’s just that when I’m in the company of others even my nearest and dearest there always comes a moment when I’d rather be reading a book.”
60. “The important thing is not to let oneself be guided by the opinion of one’s contemporaries; nor even by men of the past.”
61. “It’s not a matter of whether you can or can’t. Some things in life, you just do.”
62. “The most important thing we learn at school is the fact that the most important things can’t be learned at school.”
63. “Despite your best efforts, people are going to be hurt when it’s time for them to be hurt.”
64. “Even if we could turn back, we’d probably never end up where we started.”
65. “Don’t ever think that you can’t change. There will always be a time when you can change. There will always be a moment when you can do something different.”
66. “No matter how far you travel, you can never get away from yourself.”
67. “Everyone’s life is a mess. It’s what you do with the mess that counts.”
68. “No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side.”
69. “Most things in life are moments of pleasure and a lifetime of embarrassment; photography is a moment of embarrassment and a lifetime of pleasure.”
70. “I think of myself as a bad writer with big ideas, but I’d rather be that than a big writer with bad ideas.”
71. “The pure present is an ungraspable advance of the past devouring the future. In truth, all sensation is already memory.”
72. “It’s like the old saying: You never know what you have until it’s gone. 

73. “Nobody likes being alone that much. I don’t go out of my way to make friends, that’s all. It just leads to disappointment. ”
74. “Sometimes when I look at you, I feel I’m gazing at a distant star. It’s dazzling, but the light is from tens of thousands of years ago. Maybe the star doesn’t even exist any more. Yet sometimes that light seems more real to me than anything.”
75. “If you can’t understand it without an explanation, you can’t understand it with an explanation.”
76. “Why do people have to be this lonely? What’s the point of it all? Millions of people in this world, all of them yearning, looking to others to satisfy them, yet isolating themselves. Why? Was the earth put here just to nourish human loneliness?”
77. “It’s like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.”
78. “It is not that the meaning cannot be explained. But there are certain meanings that are lost forever the moment they are explained in words.”
79. “Most everything you think you know about me is nothing more than memories.”
80. “The only way to escape the mundane is for you to constantly be evolving.”
81. “The truth is, I’m not a half as good as I want to be. But I’m twice as good as most people expect me to be.”
82. “So you’re a little weird? Work it! A little different? OWN it! Better to be a nerd than one of the herd!”
83. “Life is a lot like jazz… it’s best when you improvise.”
84. “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.”
85. “Even castles in the sky can do with a fresh coat of paint.”
86. “If you remember me, then I don’t care if everyone else forgets.”
87. “Spend your money on the things money can buy. Spend your time on the things money can’t buy.”
88. “Every one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That’s part of what it means to be alive.”
89. “Silence, I discover, is something you can actually hear.”
90. “In a sense, it’s as if everything and anything is possible – or, to put it more accurately, nothing is impossible.”
91. “I was always hungry for love. Just once, I wanted to know what it was like to get my fill of it, to be fed so much love I couldn’t take any more. Just once.”
92. “I could feel the tears finally spilling over my cheeks. It was okay to cry. Crying let the hurt out.”

93. “We’re both looking at the same moon, in the same world. We’re connected to reality by the same line. All I have to do is quietly draw it towards me.”
94. “It’s like the Tibetan Wheel of the Passions. As the wheel turns, the values and feelings on the outer rim rise and fall, shining or sinking into darkness. But true love stays fastened to the axle and doesn’t move.”
95. “I have a million things to talk to you about. All I want in this world is you. I want to see you and talk. I want the two of us to begin everything from the beginning.”
96. “I hate love. Hate being in love. I never want to be in love again. I think it’s the worst thing there is, but I keep falling for it anyway.”
97. “I have a million dreams, but I don’t know which one to pick, or how to pick just one.”
98. “We are all like a rubber-band ball; bouncing around in life until we find someone who can help us bounce a little higher.”
99. “What’s the point of living if you don’t believe in anything?”
100. “Every one of us is something that the other is not, and therefore knows something – it may be without noticing it – which no one else knows. But everyone of us has some area of thinking and feeling in which we are experts – something that we understand better than anything else. That’s very important. The world is so complex that it’s almost impossible to understand it fully. Yet we must try to understand it, because it’s the only world we have. If each of us can stay ahead of the curve in our own area of understanding, the collective knowledge of humanity will grow exponentially.”

FAQs:

Who is Haruki Murakami?

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese author and translator who is known for his unique blend of magical realism, mystery, and existentialist themes in his writing.

What are some of Haruki Murakami’s most famous books?

Some of Haruki Murakami’s most famous books include “Norwegian Wood,” “Kafka on the Shore,” “1Q84,” and “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.”

What are some common themes in Haruki Murakami’s writing?

Haruki Murakami’s writing often explores themes of loneliness, loss, identity, memory, and the search for meaning in life.

What is Haruki Murakami’s writing style?

Haruki Murakami’s writing style is characterized by its vivid imagery, surrealism, and introspection. He often employs a first-person narrative voice and incorporates elements of magical realism.

Has Haruki Murakami won any literary awards?

Yes, Haruki Murakami has won several literary awards, including the Franz Kafka Prize, the Jerusalem Prize, and the World Fantasy Award.

Was Haruki Murakami affected by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan?

Yes, Haruki Murakami was deeply affected by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and his writing has been influenced by the disaster.

What is the significance of music in Haruki Murakami’s writing?

Music is a recurring theme in Haruki Murakami’s writing, and many of his characters are musicians or music enthusiasts. He has also written about the role of music in his own life.

Does Haruki Murakami have any non-fiction works?

Yes, Haruki Murakami has written several non-fiction works, including “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” and “Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa.”

Has Haruki Murakami’s work been adapted into films or TV shows?

Yes, several of Haruki Murakami’s works have been adapted into films and TV shows, including “Norwegian Wood,” “Kafka on the Shore,” and “1Q84.”

Where can I learn more about Haruki Murakami?

You can learn more about Haruki Murakami by reading his books, listening to his interviews, or visiting his official website.