The better you were able to imagine what you wanted to imagine, the farther you could flee from reality.
Haruki MurakamiPerhaps most people in the world arenโt trying to be free, Kafka. They just think they are. Itโs all an illusion. If they really were set free, most people would be in a real pickle. Youโd better remember that. People actually prefer not being free?
Haruki MurakamiIn 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 MurakamiWere the stars out when I left the house last evening? All I could remember was the couple in the Skyline listening to Duran Duran. Stars? Who remembers stars? Come to think of it, had I even looked up at the sky recently? Had the stars been wiped out of the sky three months ago, I wouldnโt have known.
Haruki MurakamiLife is not like water. Things in life don't necessarily flow over the shortest possible route.
Haruki MurakamiThere was just one moon. That familiar, yellow, solitary moon. The same moon that silently floated over fields of pampas grass, the moon that rose--a gleaming, round saucer--over the calm surface of lakes, that tranquilly beamed down on the rooftops of fast-asleep houses. The same moon that brought the high tide to shore, that softly shone on the fur of animals and enveloped and protected travelers at night. The moon that, as a crescent, shaved slivers from the soul--or, as a new moon, silently bathed the earth in its own loneliness. THAT moon.
Haruki Murakami