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244f7d9
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And you really will have to make it through that violent, metaphysical, symbolic storm. No matter how metaphysical or symbolic it might be, make no mistake about it: it will cut through flesh like a thousand razor blades. People will bleed there, and you will bleed too. Hot, red blood. You'll catch that blood in your hands, your own blood and the blood of others. And once the storm is over you won't remember how you made it through, how you..
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Haruki Murakami |
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1080a4c
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Everything has boundaries. The same holds true with thought. You shouldn't fear boundaries, but you should not be afraid of destroying them. That's what is most important if you want to be free: respect for and exasperation with boundaries.
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limitations
freedom
life
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Haruki Murakami |
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4d87d5f
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Memory is so crazy! It's like we've got these drawers crammed with tons of useless stuff. Meanwhile, all the really important things we just keep forgetting, one after the other.
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Haruki Murakami |
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62a85c5
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Results aside, the ability to have complete faith in another human being is one of the finest qualities a person can possess.
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Haruki Murakami |
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0687006
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Everyone just keeps on disappearing. Some things vanish, like they were cut away. Others fade slowly into the mist. And all that remains is a desert.
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Haruki Murakami |
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f33cbfb
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The others in the dorm thought I wanted to be a writer, because I was always alone with a book, but I had no such ambition. There was nothing I wanted to be.
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life
ennui
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Haruki Murakami |
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ef21190
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Autumn finally arrived. And when it did, I came to a decision. Something had to give: I couldn't keep on living like this.
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Haruki Murakami |
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0f57e7a
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When someone is trying very hard to get something, they don't. And when they're running away from something as hard as they can, it usually catches up with them.
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inspirational
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Haruki Murakami |
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f989681
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No matter how quiet and conformist a person's life seems, there's always a time in the past when they reached an impasse. A time when they went a little crazy. I guess people need that sort of stage in their lives.
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Haruki Murakami |
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f2b2697
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When you fall in love, the natural thing to do is give yourself to it.
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Haruki Murakami |
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aa9c35c
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For a certain kind of person, love begins from something tiny or silly. From something like that or it doesn't begin at all.
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Haruki Murakami |
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b1cdb3f
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Hundreds of butterflies flitted in and out of sight like short-lived punctuation marks in a stream of consciousness without beginning or end.
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writing
flying
descriptive
prose
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Haruki Murakami |
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52d94a1
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Everybody's born with some different thing at the core of their existence. And that thing, whatever it is, becomes like a heat source that runs each person from the inside. I have one too, of course. Like everybody else. But sometimes it gets out of hand. It swells or shrinks inside me, and it shakes me up. What I'd really like to do is find a way to communicate that feeling to another person.
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Haruki Murakami |
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4d9fd9b
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My shadow is only half of what it should be." "Everyone has their shortcomings."
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Haruki Murakami |
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869fb40
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Because memory and sensations are so uncertain, so biased, we always rely on a certain reality-call it an alternate reality-to prove the reality of events. To what extent facts we recognize as such really are as they seem, and to what extent these are facts merely because we label them as such, is an impossible distinction to draw. Therefore, in order to pin down reality as reality, we need another reality to relativize the first. Yet that ..
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mind
reality
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Haruki Murakami |
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4278714
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Somewhere, far, far away, there's a shitty island. An island without a name. An island not worth giving a name. A shitty island with a shitty shape. On this shitty island grow palm trees that also have shitty shapes. And the palm trees produce coconuts that give off a shitty smell. Shitty monkeys live in the trees, and they love to eat these shitty-smelling coconuts, after which they shit the world's foulest shit. The shit falls on the grou..
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Haruki Murakami |
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fd8dcde
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It just happens to be the way that I'm made. I have to write things down to feel I fully comprehend them.
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Haruki Murakami |
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bd6ffef
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You don't get it, do you?" I said. "It's not a question of 'what then'. Some people get a kick out of reading railroad timetables and that's all they do all day. Some people make huge model boats out of matchsticks. So what's wrong if there happens to be one guy in the world who enjoys trying to understand you?"
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Haruki Murakami |
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92efe89
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Tell me, Doctor, are you afraid of death?" "I guess it depends on how you die."
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Haruki Murakami |
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e6d8dc6
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When it's raining like this," said Naoko, "it feels as if we're the only ones in the world. I wish it would just keep raining so the three of us could stay together."
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norwegian-wood
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Haruki Murakami |
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d4006cc
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Was the earth put here just to nourish human loneliness?
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Haruki Murakami |
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9c3711f
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Being active every day makes it easier to hear that inner voice.
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Haruki Murakami |
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58de2a0
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So what can I do now?" she spoke up a minute later. "Nothing," I said. "Just think about what comes before words. You owe that to the dead. As time goes on, you'll understand. What lasts, lasts; what doesn't, doesn't. Time solves most things. And what time can't solve, you have to solve yourself. Is that too much to ask?" "A little," she said, trying to smile. "Well, of course it is," I said, trying to smile too. "I doubt that this makes se..
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Haruki Murakami |
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cf44135
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You might think you made a new world or a new self, but your old self is always gonna be there, just below the surface, and if something happens, it'll stick its head out and say 'Hi.' You don't seem to realize that. You were made somewhere else.
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Haruki Murakami |
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f12563e
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I laughed. "You're too young to be so ... pessimistic," I said, using the English word. "Pessi-what?" "Pessimistic. It means looking only at the dark side of things." "Pessimistic ... pessimistic ..." She repeated the English to herself over and over, and then she looked up at me with a fierce glare. "I'm only sixteen," she said, "and I don't know much about the world, but I do know one thing for sure. If I'm pessimistic, then the adults in..
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Haruki Murakami |
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6981b2e
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Understanding is but the sum of misunderstandings.
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Haruki Murakami |
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b521617
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Time flows in strange ways on Sundays, and sights become mysteriously distorted.
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Haruki Murakami |
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e2b628c
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The things she most wanted to tell him would lose their meaning the moment she put them into words.
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Haruki Murakami |
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516a039
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I didn't feel like I was in my own body; my body was just a lonely, temporary container I happened to be borrowing.
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Haruki Murakami |
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5ab0dae
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We're all kind of weird and twisted and drowning.
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Haruki Murakami |
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ff285e9
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Things can be seen better in the darkness," he said, as if he had just seen into her mind. "But the longer you spend in the dark, the harder it becomes to return to the world aboveground where the light is"
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Haruki Murakami |
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dc7d069
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Everything just blows me away.
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Haruki Murakami |
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f1a3b97
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You know what I'd really like to do the most right now? Climb up to the top of some high place like the pyramids. The highest place I can find. Where you can see forever. Stand on the very top, look all around the world, see all the scenery, and see with my own eyes what's been lost from the world.
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Haruki Murakami |
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56409d5
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The thing I'm most afraid of is me. Of not knowing what I'm going to do. Of not knowing what I'm doing right now
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Haruki Murakami |
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b6d5989
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Our memory is made up of our individual memories and our collective memories. The two are intimately linked. And history is our collective memory. If our collective memory is taken from us - is rewritten - we lose the ability to sustain our true selves.
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Haruki Murakami |
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3a6c03a
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I could disappear from the face of the earth, and the world would go on moving without the slightest twinge. Things were tremendously complicated, to be sure, but one thing was clear: no one needed me.
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sadness
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Haruki Murakami |
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a7075f4
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You sit at the edge of the world, I am in a crater that's no more. Words without letters Standing in the shadow of the door. The moon shines down on a sleeping lizard, Little fish rain from the sky. Outside the window there are soldiers, steeling themselves to die. (Refrain) Kafka sits in a chair by the shore, Thinking for the pendulum that moves the world, it seems. When your heart is closed, The shadow of the unmoving Sphinx, Becomes a kn..
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Haruki Murakami |
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4fa04c0
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The world in books seemed so much more alive to me than anything outside. I could see things I'd never seen before. Books and music were my best friends. I had a couple of good friends at school, but never met anyone I could really speak my heart to. We'd just make small talk, play soccer together. When something bothered me, I didn't talk with anyone about it. I thought it over all by myself, came to a conclusion, and took action alone. No..
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Haruki Murakami |
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187a569
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Aren't you afraid of dying? Not really. I've watched lots of good-for-nothing, worthless people die, and if people like that can do it, then I should be able to handle it.
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people
handle
worthless
dying
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Haruki Murakami |
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9a65488
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All of us are imperfect human beings living in an imperfect world.
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Haruki Murakami |
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53028d2
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I closed my eyes and listened carefully for the descendants of Sputnik, even now circling the earth, gravity their only tie to the planet. Lonely metal souls in the unimpeded darkness of space, they meet, pass each other, and part, never to meet again. No words passing between them. No promises to keep.
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Haruki Murakami |
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3b7d03e
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The thoughts that occur to me while I'm running are like clouds in the sky. Clouds of all different sizes. They come and they go, while the sky remains the same sky always. The clouds are mere guests in the sky that pass away and vanish, leaving behind the sky.
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writing
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Haruki Murakami |
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409cdf5
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Waiting for your answer is one of the most painful things I have ever been through. At least let me know whether or not I hurt you.
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Haruki Murakami |
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93aaf95
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You got to know your limits. Once is enough, but you got to learn. A little caution never hurt anyone. A good woodsman has only one scar on him. No more, no less.
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Haruki Murakami |