Quotes From "Norwegian Wood" By Haruki Murakami

Memory is a funny thing. When I was in the scene, I hardly paid it any mind. I never stopped to think of it as something that would make a lasting impression, certainly never imagined that eighteen years later I would recall it in such detail. I didn't give a damn about the scenery that day. I was thinking about myself. I was thinking about the beautiful girl walking next to me. I was thinking about the two of us together, and then about myself again. It was the age, that time of life when every sight, every feeling, every thought came back, like a boomerang, to me. And worse, I was in love. Love with complications. The scenery was the last thing on my mind. Haruki Murakami

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. Haruki Murakami

This is one more piece of advice I have for you: don't get impatient. Even if things are so tangled up you can't do anything, don't get desperate or blow a fuse and start yanking on one particular thread before it's ready to come undone. You have to realize it's going to be along process and that you'll work on things slowly, one at a time. Haruki Murakami

In his or her own way, everyone I saw before me looked happy. Whether they were really happy or just looked it, I couldn't tell. But they did look happy on this pleasant early afternoon in late September, and because of that I felt a kind of loneliness new to me, as if I were the only one here who was not truly part of the scene. Haruki Murakami

That's the kind of death that frightens me. The shadow of death slowly, slowly eats away at the region of life, and before you know it everything's dark and you can't see, and the people around you think of you as more dead than alive. Haruki Murakami

I’ve never once thought about how I was going to die, ” she said. “I can’t think about it. I don’t even know how I’m going to live. Haruki Murakami

Somewhere between 'not enough' and 'not at all.' 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. But they never gave that to me. Never, not once. Haruki Murakami

He was a far more voracious reader than me, but he made it a rule never to touch a book by any author who had not been dead at least 30 years. "That's the only kind of book I can trust, " he said." It's not that I don't believe in contemporary literature, " he added, "but I don't want to waste valuable time reading any book that has not had the baptism of time. Life is too short. Haruki Murakami

He was a far more voracious reader than me, but he made it a rule to never touch a book by any author who had not been dead at least 30 years. "That's the only kind of book I can trust, " he said." It's not that I don't believe in contemporary literature, " he added, "but I don't want to waste valuable time reading a book that has not had the baptism of time. Life is too short. Haruki Murakami

Colors shone with exceptional clarity in the rain. The ground was a deep black, the pine branches a brilliant green, the people wrapped in yellow looking like special spirits that were allowed to wander over the earth on rainy mornings only. Haruki Murakami

Things like that happen all the time in this great big world of ours. It is like taking a boat out on a beautiful lake on a beautiful day and thinking both the sky and the lake are beautiful. Things will go where they are supposed to go if you just let them take their natural course. Despite your best efforts, people are going to be hurt when it is time for them to be hurt. Life is like that. Haruki Murakami

Her cry was the saddest sound of orgasm that I had ever heard. Haruki Murakami

No truth can cure the sadness we feel from losing a loved one. No truth, no sincerity, no strength, no kindness, can cure that sorrow. All we can do is see that sadness through to the end andlearn something from it, but what we learn will be no help in facing the next sadness that comes to us without warning. Haruki Murakami

That's the most important thing for a sickness like ours: a sense of trust. If I put myself in this person's hands, I'll be OK. If my condition starts to worsen even the slightest bit - if a screw comes loose - he'll notice straight away, and with tremendous care and patience he'll fix it, he'll tighten the screw again, put all the jumped threads back in place. If we have that sense of trust, our sickness stays away. . Haruki Murakami

It was a small room with dim light coming in the window, reminiscent of old Polish films. Haruki Murakami

She and I were bound together at the border between life and death. It was like that for us from the start Haruki Murakami

Nights without work I spent with whisky and books. Haruki Murakami

I'd like to have a good long talk with you once you've calmed down. Please call me soon. Happy Birthday. Haruki Murakami

Then, all but instinctively, I took her in my arms. Pressed against me, her whole body trembling, she continued to cry without a sound. Haruki Murakami

Writing from memory like this, I often feel a pang of dread. What if I've forgotten the most important thing? What if somewhere inside me there is a dark limbo where all the the truly important memories are heaped and slowly turning into mud? Haruki Murakami

I guess I've been waiting so long I'm looking for perfection. That makes it tough. Haruki Murakami

What happens when people open their hearts?"" They get better. Haruki Murakami

Beautiful day out there, ” I said, perching on the stool and crossing my legs. “It’s autumn, Sunday, great weather, and crowded everywhere you go. Relaxing indoors like this is the best thing you can do on such a nice day. It’s exhausting to get into those crowds. And the air is bad. I mostly do laundry on Sundays–wash the stuff in the morning, hang it out on the roof of my dorm, take it in before the sun goes down, do a good job of ironing it. I don’t mind ironing at all. There’s a special satisfaction in making wrinkled things smooth. And I’m pretty good at it, too. Of course, I was lousy at it at first. I put creases in everything. After a month of practice, though, I knew what I was doing. So Sunday is my day for laundry and ironing. I couldn’t do it today, of course. Too bad: wasted a perfect laundry day. Haruki Murakami

Every once in a while she'll get worked up and cry like that. But that's ok. She's letting her feelings out. The scary thing is not being able to do that. Then your feelings build up and harden and die inside. That's when you're in big trouble. Haruki Murakami

He was going to die soon, you knew when you saw those eyes. There was no sign of life in his flesh, just the barest traces of what had once been a life. His body was like a dilapidated old house from which all furniture and fixtures have been removed and which awaited now only its final demolition. Haruki Murakami

She was a keen observer, a precise user of language, sharp-tongued and funny. She could stir your emotions. Yes, really, that's what she was so good at - stirring people's emotions, moving you. And she knew she had this power... I only realized later. At the time, I had no idea what she was doing to me. Haruki Murakami

She was seriously in love, but she never made demands. Haruki Murakami

My words did not seem to reach her. Or, if they did, she was unable to grasp their meaning. Haruki Murakami

I don't know, it's stupid being 20, " she said. "I'm just not ready. It feels weird. Like somebody's pushing me from behind. Haruki Murakami

I don't deserve a girl like Hatsumi, " Nagasawa once said to me. I had to agree with him. Haruki Murakami

I'm the scratchy stuff on the side of the matchbox. But that's fine with me. I don't mind at all. Better to be a first-class matchbox than a second-class match. Haruki Murakami

Everybody thinks I'm this delicate little girl. Haruki Murakami

I love you, " I said to her. "From the bottom of my heart. I don't ever want to let you go again. But there's nothing I can do. I can't make a move."" Because of her?" I nodded. Haruki Murakami