It was a narrow world, a world that was standing still. But the narrower it became, the more it betook of stillness, the more this world that enveloped me seemed to overflow with things and people that could only be called strange. They had been there all the while, it seemed, waiting in the shadows for me to stop moving. And every time the wind-up bird came to my yard to wind its spring, the world descendedmore deeply into chaos.
Haruki MurakamiIn everybodyโs life thereโs a point of no return. And in a very few cases, a point where you canโt go forward anymore. And when we reach that point, all we can do is quietly accept the fact. Thatโs how we survive.
Haruki MurakamiMost near-future fictions are boring. It's always dark and always raining, and people are so unhappy.
Haruki MurakamiIt was spring break, so the theater was always packed with high schools students. It was an animal house. I wanted to burn the place down.
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 MurakamiSo that's how we live our lives. No matter how deep and fatal the loss, no matter how important the thing that's stolen from us--that's snatched right out of our hands--even if we are left completely changed, with only the outer layer of skin from before, we continue to play out our lives this way, in silence. We draw ever nearer to the end of our allotted span of time, bidding it farewell as it trails off behind. Repeating, often adroitly, the endless deeds of the everyday. Leaving behind a feeling of immeasurable emptiness.
Haruki Murakami