Top 500 Haruki Murakami Quotes (2024 Update)
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401. “Somewhere in his body – perhaps in the marrow of his bones – he would continue to feel her absence.”

— Haruki Murakami

402. “Most of the psychological differences between men and women seem to come from differences in their reproductive system.”

— Haruki Murakami

403. “That’s gotta be one of the principles behind reality. Accepting things that are hard to comprehend, and leaving them that way.”

— Haruki Murakami

404. “It was a small room with dim light coming in the window, reminiscent of old Polish films.”

— Haruki Murakami

405. “If you think God’s there, He is. If you don’t, He isn’t. And if that’s what God’s like, I wouldn’t worry about it.”

— Haruki Murakami

406. “I contented myself with whiskey, for medicinal purposes. It helped numb my various aches and pains. Not that the alcohol actually reduced the pain; it just gave the pain a life of its own, apart from mine.”

— Haruki Murakami

407. “In most cases learning something essential in life requires physical pain.”

— Haruki Murakami

408. “Never trust a man who carries a handkerchief, I always say. One of many prejudicial rules of thumb.”

— Haruki Murakami

409. “Lay down your mind and peace will come. A peace deeper than anything you have known.”

— Haruki Murakami

410. “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.”

— Haruki Murakami

411. “When there’s nothing to do, you do nothing slowly and intently.”

— Haruki Murakami

412. “Anyone who falls in love is searching for the missing pieces of themselves.”

— Haruki Murakami

413. “Things will go where they’re supposed to go if you just let them take their natural course. Despite your best efforts, people are going to be hurt when it’s time for them to be hurt. Life is like that.”

— Haruki Murakami

414. “Results aside, the ability to have complete faith in another human being is one of the finest qualities a person can possess.”

— Haruki Murakami

415. “There’s a special feeling you get on a veranda that you just can’t get anywhere else.”

— Haruki Murakami

416. “There is nothing in this world that never takes a step outside a person’s heart.”

— Haruki Murakami

417. “Spending plenty of time on something can be the most sophisticated form of revenge.”

— Haruki Murakami

418. “Everything was too sharp and clear, so that I could never tell where to start- the way a map that shows too much can sometimes be useless.”

— Haruki Murakami

419. “Exerting yourself to the limit over and over again, that is the essence of running. Running is painful, but the pain doesn’t leave me, I can take care of it. That agrees with my mentality.”

— Haruki Murakami

420. “Besides being the world the kind of sadness that can not be expressed in tears. You can not explain it to anyone. Unable to take any shape, settles quietly in the bottom of the heart as snow during the windless night.”

— Haruki Murakami

421. “She was, if anything, on the plain side, at least not the type to attract men wherever she went. But there was something in her face that was meant for me alone. Everytime we met, I took a good look at her. And loved what I saw.”

— Haruki Murakami

422. “If you never noticed, it never happened.”

— Haruki Murakami

423. “A deserted library in the morning – there’s something about it that really gets to me. All possible words and ideas are there, resting peacefully.”

— Haruki Murakami

424. “Creative people have to be fundamentally egoistic. This may sound pompous, but it happens to be the truth. People who live their lives watching what goes on around them, trying not to make waves, and looking for the easy compromise are not going to be able to do creative work, whatever their field.”

— Haruki Murakami

425. “When microorganisms die, they make oil; when huge timbers fall, they make coal. But everything here was pure, unadulterated rubbish that didn’t make anything. Where does a busted videodeck get you?”

— Haruki Murakami

426. “I used to run a full marathon in three hours and 25 or 26 minutes. Not any more.”

— Haruki Murakami

427. “That’s how stories happen – with a turning point, an unexpected twist. There’s only one kind of happiness, but misfortune comes in all shapes and sizes. It’s like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.”

— Haruki Murakami

428. “Is it possible to become friends with a butterfly?”

— Haruki Murakami

429. “You have to patiently learn to live together with your shadow. And carefully observe the darkness that resides within you. Sometimes in a dark tunnel you have to confront your own dark side.”

— Haruki Murakami

430. “The most dangerous creature here would have to be me. So maybe I’m just scared of my own shadow.”

— Haruki Murakami

431. “The best musicians transpose consciousness into sound; painters do the same for color and shape.”

— Haruki Murakami

432. “If writing novels is like planting a forest, then writing short stories is more like planting a garden.”

— Haruki Murakami

433. “One day, I lost sight of her. I happened to glance away for a moment, and when I turned back, she had disappeared.”

— Haruki Murakami

434. “As I already explaned, I don’t have any form. I’m a conceptual metaphysical object.”

— Haruki Murakami

435. “Certain kinds of knowledge rob people of their sleep.”

— Haruki Murakami

436. “None of us are ever finished. Everyone is always a work in progress.”

— Haruki Murakami

437. “Fate seems to be taking me in some even stranger directions.”

— Haruki Murakami

438. “What would tomorrow bring? I wondered. Both hands on the wheel, I closed my eyes. I didn’t feel like I was in my own body; my body was just a lonely, temporary container I happened to be borrowing. What would become of me tomorrow I did not know.”

— Haruki Murakami

439. “Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that’s the essence of running, and a metaphor for life – and for me, for writing as well. I believe many runners would agree.”

— Haruki Murakami

440. “I’m not very good at putting my feelings into words. That’s why people misunderstand me.”

— Haruki Murakami

441. “The problem was, I think, that the places I fit in were always falling behind the rimes.”

— Haruki Murakami

442. “Relax your body, and the rest of you will lighten up.”

— Haruki Murakami

443. “The faintest gleam of their lost memories glimmered for the briefest moment in their hearts.”

— Haruki Murakami

444. “I wasn’t particularly afraid of death itself. As Shakespeare said, die this year and you don’t have to die the next.”

— Haruki Murakami

445. “All things in my novels are real for me. Some western critics said that Garcia Marquez’s novels are magic realism. However, I believe that Marquez must have experienced everything in his novels.”

— Haruki Murakami

446. “I wondered if she was trying to convey something to me, something she could not put into words – something prior to words that she could not grasp within herself and which therefore had no hope of ever turning into words.”

— Haruki Murakami

447. “The good thing about writing book is that you can dream while you are awake...”

— Haruki Murakami

448. “I was impressed by the variety of dreams and goals that life could offer.”

— Haruki Murakami

449. “When I am writing, I do not distinguish between the natural and supernatural. Everything seems real. That is my world, you could say.”

— Haruki Murakami

450. “It’s not me but the world that’s deranged.”

— Haruki Murakami