Haruki Murakami is a contemporary Japanese author and translator whose works invoke classical music. The critics describe his writing style as ‘an easily accessible, yet profoundly complex’. Murakami is inspired by Western culture, music and literature. Since he grew up reading American writers, his works are very different from the conventional Japanese authors. He was a drama student at Tokyo’s Waseda University. After completing his education, he joined a record studio, where he got inspired to write Toru Wantabe’s character in Norwegian Wood. This is how he began his literary career. Meanwhile, he ran a coffeehouse cum evening jazz bar named ‘Peter Cat’ in Kokubunji. Since then, he has published several fiction and non-fiction books like A Wild Sheep Chase (1982), Kafka on the Shore (2002), The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994-95), 1Q84 (2009-2010). He also translated the famous works of Salinger, Carver and other English authors to Japanese. Some of Murakami’s bestselling works sold millions of copies worldwide and were translated into 50 different languages. He achieved critical appreciation and numerous awards like World Fantasy Award (2006), Franz Kafka Prize (2006), Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award (2006) and Jerusalem Prize (2009). His musical works are not just surrealistic but melancholic and inspiring for young authors. The Guardian named him as the greatest living novelists of postmodern literature. We have curated a collection of best quotes from Murakami’s brilliant career by combing through all of his novels and writings to get his best thoughts and quotes. Here are some of his most inspiring quotes on life, loss, and everything in between.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The most important thing we learn at school is the fact that the most important things can't be learned at school.
Haruki Murakami
As time goes on, you'll understand. What lasts, lasts; what doesn't, doesn't. Time solves most things. And what time can't solve, you have to solve yourself.
I realize full well how hard it must be to go on living alone in a place from which someone has left you, but there is nothing so cruel in this world as the desolation of having nothing to hope for.
I didn't have much to say to anybody but kept to myself and my books. With my eyes closed, I would touch a familiar book and draw it's fragrance deep inside me. This was enough to make me happy.
Even chance meetings are the result of karma… Things in life are fated by our previous lives. That even in the smallest events there’s no such thing as coincidence.
She's letting out her feelings. The scary thing is not being able to do that. When your feelings build up and harden and die inside, then you're in big trouble.
Haruki Murakami
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.
I am nothing. I’m like someone who’s been thrown into the ocean at night, floating all alone. I reach out, but no one is there. I call out, but no one answers. I have no connection to anything.
Which is why I am writing this book. To think. To understand. It just happens to be the way I'm made. I have to write things down to feel I fully comprehend them.
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.
