Check out some of my fav Haruki Murakami quotes from his famous and most readable novels about life and feelings. Murakami’s work has been described as both accessible and extremely complex. Key elements of his writing are the Westernized style, idiosyncratic humor, and sentimental nostalgia.
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Murakami was born in Kyoto in 1949 but spent most of his youth in Kobe. His father was the son of a Buddhist priest. His mother was the daughter of a merchant from Osaka. Both were Japanese literature teachers. Murakami studied theater arts at Tokyo University. His first job was in a record store. Shortly before finishing his studies, he opened a cafe-jazz bar in Tokyo with his wife Yoko.
Murakami wrote his first work when he was 29. He has said that he was suddenly and inexplicably inspired to write his first novel in a stadium while watching a baseball game in 1978. When he finished writing it, he submitted it to a literary contest and won first prize.
Many of his novels have musical themes and titles that refer to classical music, like The Tuned Bird. And, some of his novels have song titles, like Dance, Dance, Dance, Norwegian Wood from the Beatles’ song, etc. The huge success of his novel Norwegian Wood (1987) made him famous in his country. His works have been translated into many languages in Asia, Europe, and America. In 2006 he received the Franz Kafka Prize, while in 2009 the Jerusalem Prize.
“Whatever it is you’re seeking won’t come in the form you’re expecting.”
― Haruki Murakami
“When you are used to the kind of life -of never getting anything you want- you stop knowing what it is you want.”
― Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
“Life doesn’t require ideals. It requires standards of action.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood
“Everyone may be ordinary, but they’re not normal.”
― Haruki Murakami, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
“I dream. Sometimes I think that’s the only right thing to do.”
― Haruki Murakami, Sputnik Sweetheart
“You can hide memories, but you can’t erase the history that produced them.”
― Haruki Murakami, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
“What we seek is some kind of compensation for what we put up with.”
― Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance
“The light of morning decomposes everything.”
― Haruki Murakami, A Wild Sheep Chase
“Silence, I discover, is something you can actually hear.”
― Haruki Murakami
“If you really want to know something, you have to be willing to pay the price.”
― Haruki Murakami, After Dark
“A person learns how to love himself through the simple acts of loving and being loved by someone else.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84
“It’s hard to tell the difference between sea and sky, between voyager and sea. Between reality and the workings of the heart.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
“It’s easy to forget things you don’t need anymore.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
“Things like that happen all the time in this great big world of ours. It’s like taking a boat out on a beautiful lake on a beautiful day and thinking the sky and the lake are beautiful. So stop eating yourself up alive. Things will go where they’re supposed to go if you just let them take their natural course.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood
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