Silence, I discover, is something you can actually hear.

Okay, let’s put it this way. I would like to sleep with you. But it’s alright if I don’t sleep with you. What I’m saying is I’d like to be as fair as possible. I don’t want to force anything on anybody, any more than I’d want anything forced on me. It’s enough that I feel your presence or see your commas swirling around me.

Most young people were getting jobs in big companies, becoming company men. I wanted to be individual.

What I was chasing in circles must have been the tail of the darkness inside me.

If you want everything to be nice and straight all the time, then go live in a world made with a triungular ruler.

That's what we all do: endlessly take the long way around.

This is no honky-tonk parade. 1Q84 is the real world, where a cut draws real blood, where pain is real pain and fear is real fear. The moon in the sky is no paper moon.