Judging the mistakes of strangers is an easy thing to do - and it feels pretty good.

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.

I’ve built a wall around me, never letting anybody inside and trying not to venture outside myself

Sometimes, however, this sense of isolation, like acid spilling out of a bottle, can unconsciously eat away at a person’s heart and dissolve it.

I'm a writer. I don't support any war. That's my principle.

Sometimes when I look at you, I feel I'm gazing at a distant star. It's dazzling, but the light is from tens of thousands of years ago. Maybe the star doesn't even exist any more. Yet sometimes that light seems more real to me than anything.

Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that's the essence of running, and a metaphor for life