Once, when I was younger, I thought I could be someone else. I'd move to Casablanca, open a bar, and I'd meet Ingrid Bergman. Or more realistically - whether actually more realistic or not - I'd tune in on a better life, something more suited to my true self. Toward that end, I had to undergo training. I read The Greening of America, and I saw Easy Rider three times. But like a boat with a twisted rudder, I kept coming back to the same place. I wasn't anywhere. I was myself, waiting on the shore for me to return.
Haruki MurakamiWho can really distinguish between the sea and what's reflected in it? Or tell the difference between the falling rain and loneliness?
Haruki MurakamiIn the world we live in, what we know and what we don't know are like Siamese twins, inseparable, existing in a state of confusion.
Haruki MurakamiWith each passing moment I'm becoming part of the past. There is no future for me, just the past steadily accumulating.
Haruki MurakamiI laughed. โYouโre too young to be so โฆ pessimistic,โ I said, using the English word. โPessi-what?โ โPessimistic. It means looking only at the dark side of things.โ โPessimistic โฆ pessimistic โฆโ She repeated the English to herself over and over, and then she looked up at me with a fierce glare. โIโm only sixteen,โ she said, โand I donโt know much about the world, but I do know one thing for sure. If Iโm pessimistic, then the adults in this world who are not pessimistic are a bunch of idiots.
Haruki MurakamiI wonder how it turns out that we all lead such different lives. Take you and your sister, for example. You're born to the same parents, you grow up in the same household, you're both girls. How do you end up with such wildly different personalities?...One puts on a bikini like little semaphore flags and lies by the pool looking sexy, and the other puts on her school bathing suit and swims her heart out like a dolphin.
Haruki Murakami