Not just beautiful, though โ the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And theyโre watching me. What Iโve up till now, what Iโm going to do โ they know it all. Nothing gets past their watchful eyes. As I sit there under the shining night sky, again a violent fear takes hold of me. My heartโs pounding a mile a minute, and I can barely breathe. All these millions of stars looking down on me, and Iโve never given them more than a passing thought before. Not just the stars โ how many other things havenโt I noticed in the world, things I know nothing about?
Haruki MurakamiWhenever an occasion arose in which she needed an opinion on something in the wider world, she borrowed her husband's. If this had been all there was to her, she wouldn't have bothered anyone, but as is so often the case with such women, she suffered from an incurable case of of pretentiousness. Lacking any internalized values of her own, such people can arrive at a standpoint only by adopting other people's standards or views. The only principle that governs their minds is the question "How do I look?
Haruki MurakamiSo once you're dead there's just nothing? Mari: Basically... Korogi: I get so scared when I start thinking about this stuff. I can hardly breathe, and my whole body wants to shrink into a corner. It's so much easier to just believe in reincarnation.
Haruki Murakami