I laughed. โYouโre too young to be so โฆ pessimistic,โ I said, using the English word. โPessi-what?โ โPessimistic. It means looking only at the dark side of things.โ โPessimistic โฆ pessimistic โฆโ She repeated the English to herself over and over, and then she looked up at me with a fierce glare. โIโm only sixteen,โ she said, โand I donโt know much about the world, but I do know one thing for sure. If Iโm pessimistic, then the adults in this world who are not pessimistic are a bunch of idiots.
Haruki MurakamiKumiko and I felt something for each other from the beginning. It was not one of those strong, impulsive feelings that can hit two people like an electric shock when they first meet, but something quieter and gentler, like two tiny lights traveling in tandem through a vast darkness and drawing imperceptibly closer to each other as they go. As our meetings grew more frequent, I felt not so much that I had met someone new as that I had chanced upon a dear old friend.
Haruki MurakamiFate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn't something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn't get in, and walk through it, step by step.
Haruki Murakami