When I am writing, I do not distinguish between the natural and supernatural. Everything seems real. That is my world, you could say.
Haruki MurakamiI began to draw an invisible boundary between myself and other people. No matter who I was dealing with. I maintained a set distance, carefully monitoring the personโs attitude so that they wouldnโt get any closer. I didnโt easily swallow what other people told me. My only passions were books and music
Haruki MurakamiI'm not sure if I could tell the differenceโbetween just staring into space and thinking. We're usually thinking all the time, aren't we? Not that we live in order to think, but the opposite isn't true eitherโthat we think in order to live. I believe, contrary to Descartes, that we sometimes think in order not to be. Staring into space might unintentionally have the opposite effect.
Haruki MurakamiDespite your best efforts, people are going to be hurt when it's time for them to be hurt.
Haruki MurakamiOnly people who have been discriminated against can really know how much it hurts. Each person feels the pain in his own way, each has his own scars. So I think I'm as concerned about fairness and justice as anybody. But what disgusts me even more are people who have no imagination. The kind T. S. Elliot calls 'hollow men'. People who fill up that lack of imagination with heartless bits of straw, not even aware of what they're doing. Callous people who throw a lot of empty words at you, trying to force you to do what you don't want to.
Haruki Murakami