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ea982f3
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What's more, you're loads better than you think you are." "So why is it I get to thinking that way?" I puzzled. "That's because you're only half-living." she said briskly. "The other half is still untapped somewhere."
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Haruki Murakami |
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cb9058b
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The better you were able to imagine what you wanted to imagine, the farther you could flee from reality.
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reality
imagination
the-wind-up-bird-chronicle
haruki-murakami
murakami
flee
japanese
flight
japan
imagine
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Haruki Murakami |
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cebc79e
|
Tell me something, Mari--do you believe in reincarnation?" Mari shakes her head. "No, I don't think so," she says. "So you don't think there's a life to come?" "I haven't thought much about it. But it seems to me there's no reason to believe in a life after this one." "So once you're dead there's just nothing?" "Basically." "Well, I think there has to be something like reincarnation. Or maybe I should say I'm scared to think there isn't..
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nothingness
reincarnation
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Haruki Murakami |
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a26e0b6
|
When I thought of how I'd been living, how I'd been approaching life, it was all so trite, so miserably pointless. Unimaginative middle-class rubbish, and I wanted to gather it all up and stuff it away in some drawer. Or else light it on fire and watch it go up in smoke (though what kind of smoke it would emit I had no idea).
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Haruki Murakami |
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ea15748
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She was a keen observer, a precise user of language, sharp-tongued and funny. She could stir your emotions. Yes, really, that's what she was so good at - stirring people's emotions, moving you. And she knew she had this power...I only realized later. At the time, I had no idea what she was doing to me.
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norwegian-wood
emotional
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Haruki Murakami |
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9818625
|
Far away a crow caws. The earth slowly keeps on turning. But beyond any of those details there are dreams. And everyone's living in them.
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murakami
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Haruki Murakami |
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e1862f1
|
How can those who live in the light of day possibly comprehend the depths of night?
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Haruki Murakami |
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0b5cca4
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Sometimes you're just the sweetest thing. Like Christmas, summer holidays and a brand-new puppy all rolled into one.
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Haruki Murakami |
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0f448c3
|
Naoko took her left hand from her pocket and squeezed my hand. 'Don't worry,' she said. 'You'll be O.K. could go running all around here in the middle of the night and you'd fall into the well. And as long as I stick with you, I won't fall in, either.' Never?' Never!' How can you be so sure?' I just know,' she said, increasing her grip on my hand and continuing on for a ways in silence. 'I know these things. I'm always right. It's got..
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Haruki Murakami |
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2b10c6a
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You are caught between all that was and all that must be. You feel lost. Mark my words: as soon as the bones mend, you will forget about the fracture.
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slef-healing
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Haruki Murakami |
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67a72fa
|
My father always told me: 'Give somebody a hand and he'll take an arm.
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help
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Haruki Murakami |
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9cfd5fe
|
You know what I think?" she says. "That people's memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive."
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Haruki Murakami |
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144d3ae
|
Of course, reading novels was just another form of escape. As soon as he closed their pages he had to come back to the real world. But at some point Tengo noticed that returning to reality from the world of a novel was not as devastating a blow as returning from the world of mathematics. Why should that have been? After much deep thought, he reached a conclusion. No matter how clear the relationships of things might become in the forest of ..
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reading
novels
mathematics
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Haruki Murakami |
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c3c9867
|
I just put my heart into it. That's the difference. It's a question of attitude. If you really work at something, you can do it, up to a point. If you really work at being happy, you can do it, up to a point...Anything more than that is luck.
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Haruki Murakami |
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0184b3a
|
I'm struck by how pitiful and pointless this little container called is, what a lame, shabby being I am. I feel like everything I've ever done in life has been a total waste.
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Haruki Murakami |
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b6f6b7e
|
When you're surrounded by endless possibilities, one of the hardest things you can do is pass them up.
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nagasawa
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Haruki Murakami |
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ba64010
|
The curious thing about individuals is that their singularity always goes beyond any category or generalization in the book.
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individuals
singularity
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Haruki Murakami |
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cf06068
|
In the deepening spring of May, I had no choice but to recognize the trembling of my heart. It usually happened as the sun was going down. In the pale evening gloom, when the soft fragrance of magnolias hung in the air, my heart would swell without warning, and tremble, and lurch with a stab of pain. I would try clamping my eyes shut and gritting my teeth, and wait for it to pass. And it would pass -but slowly, taking its own time, and leav..
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pain
heart
trembling
magnolias
may
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Haruki Murakami |
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b46a531
|
Only people who've 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. Eliot 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 peo..
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Haruki Murakami |
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fb7f96d
|
I learned that realism can come in all shapes and sizes. The world is big enough for different values to coexist.
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realism
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Haruki Murakami |
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d9d6a3b
|
There in the dim light, staring at the shadow on the wall, I poured out the story of my life. (...) How nothing touched me. And I touched nothing. How I'd lost track of what mattered. How I worked like a fool for things that didn't. How it didn't make a difference either way.
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Haruki Murakami |
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9cb01bc
|
Were 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 wouldn't have known.
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Haruki Murakami |
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195fbe0
|
It feels like ancient history," said Naoko. But anyhow, sorry about last night. I don't know, I was a bundle of nerves. I really shouldn't have done that after you came here all the way from Tokyo." "Never mind," I said. "Both of us have a lot of feelings we need to get out in the open. So if you want to take those feelings and smash somebody with them, smash me. Then we can understand each other better." "So if you understand me better, wh..
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Haruki Murakami |
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98b099e
|
At any rate, that's how I started running. Thirty three--that's how old I was then. Still young enough, though no longer a young man. The age that Jesus Christ died. The age that Scott Fitzgerald started to go downhill. That age may be a kind of crossroads in life. That was the age when I began my life as a runner, and it was my belated, but real, starting point as a novelist.
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Haruki Murakami |
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e77c73a
|
I don't think we should judge the value of our lives by how efficient they are.
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Haruki Murakami |
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625785f
|
ldyWa qdr@ `l~ lSbr `l~ lakhryn 'kthr mn lSbr `l~ nfsy, w'uHsn stkhrj l'fDl ld~ lakhryn min l'fDl ldyWa 'n nfsy. hkdh 'n. 'n ljnb lmkhrbsh mn `lb@ lthqb. lkn hdh jyd blnsb@ ly, wl 'mn` `l~ lTlq. 'n tkwn `lb@ thqb mn ldrj@ l'wl~ 'fDl mn 'n tkwn `wd thqb mn ldrj@ lthny@.
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Haruki Murakami |
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4e1eb71
|
She didn't answer. Instead, she smiled sweetly. It was a smile so radiant that the air seemed to thin around it.
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Haruki Murakami |
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6b966f1
|
And I really wanted to see you, too," she said. "When I couldn't see you any more, I realized that. It was as clear as if the planets all of a sudden lined up in a row for me. I really need you. You're a part of me; I'm a part of you."
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love
sputnik-sweetheart
murakami
need
|
Haruki Murakami |
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b546d7f
|
It wasn't like there was some obvious change. Actually, the problem was more a lack of change. Nothing about her had changed - the way she spoke, her clothes, the topics she chose to talk about, her opinions - they were all the same as before. Their relationship was like a pendulum gradually grinding to a halt, and he felt out of synch.
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relationship
love
monotony
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Haruki Murakami |
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87c475f
|
SO THAT'S MY LIFE--or my life before I stopped sleeping--each day pretty much a repetition of the one before. I used to keep a diary, but if I forgot for two or three days, I'd lose track of what had happened on which day. Yesterday could have been the day before yesterday, or vice versa. I'd sometimes wonder what kind of life this was. Which is not to say that I found it empty. I was--very simply--amazed. At the lack of demarcation between..
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Haruki Murakami |
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9947755
|
There's a special feeling you get on a veranda that you just can't get anywhere else.
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Haruki Murakami |
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f6c4d1d
|
Nobody chooses to evolve. It's like floods and avalanches and earthquakes. You never know what's happening until they hit, then it's too late.
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evolution
grandfather
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Haruki Murakami |
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d0c8c5f
|
Animals that not only move by their own free will and share feelings with people but also possess sight and hearing qualify as deserving of names.
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Haruki Murakami |
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1875cb0
|
Each day the sun would rise and set, the flag would be raised and lowered. Each Sunday I would have a date with my dead friend's girl. I had no idea what I was doing or what I was going to do.
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Haruki Murakami |
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415821f
|
The world [...] an endless battle of contrasting memories.
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Haruki Murakami |
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d1560be
|
Ayumi had a great emptiness inside her, like a desert at the edge of the earth. You could try watering it all you wanted, but everything would be sucked down to the bottom of the world, leaving no trace of moisture. No life could take route there. Not even birds would fly over it. What had created such a wasteland inside Ayumi, only she herself knew. No, maybe not even Ayumi knew the true cause. But one of the biggest factors had to be twis..
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Haruki Murakami |
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547702d
|
lqw@ lty 'btGyh tlk lqw@ lty tfrWq byn lfwz wlkhsr@. 'n l 'bHth `n jdr ySd lqwW@ lqdm@ mn lkhrj. m 'rydh hw 'n 'kwn qdran `l~ mtSS tlk lqw@ mn lkhrj, wlwqwf ndan lh. lqw@ `l~ tHmWl l'shy bhdw-'shy mthl lZlm, sw lHZ, lHzn, l'khT, sw lfhm...
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Haruki Murakami |
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07e5dd4
|
Time, of course, topples everyone in its path equally- the way that driver beats his old horse until it dies. But the thrashing we receive is one of frightful gentleness. Few of us even realize that we are being beaten.
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Haruki Murakami |
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feb1eef
|
If writing novels is like planting a forest, then writing short stories is more like planting a garden. The two processes complement each other, creating a complete landscape that I treasure. The green foliage of the trees casts a pleasant shade over the earth, and the wind rustles the leaves, which are sometimes dyed a brilliant gold. Meanwhile, in the garden, buds appear on the flowers, and colorful petals attract bees and butterflies, re..
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Haruki Murakami |
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7edf141
|
But this isn't their God, she decided. It's my God. This is a God I have found through sacrificing my own life, through my flesh being cut, my skin ripped off, my blood sucked away, my nails torn, all my time and hopes and memories being stolen from me. This is not a God with a form. No white clothes, no long beard. This god has no doctrine, no scripture, no precepts. No reward, no punishment. This God doesn't give, and doesn't take away. T..
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god
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Haruki Murakami |
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c58865b
|
But thing in the past are like plate that's shattered to pieces. You can never put it back together like it was, right?
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past
|
Haruki Murakami |
|
19675d6
|
wqd yHdth 'n ywjd mthl hdh lnw` mn lns. 'ns mwhwbwn bmwhb@ `jyb@, lknhm l ybdhlwn jhd ltnZymh. ynthwn l~ tshtyth wtDyy`h. r'yt nSyby mn hw'l lns. fy lbdy@ tZn 'nhm mdhhlwn. ystTy`wn qr@ nwt@ qT`@ blG@ lS`wb@ thm yqwmwn b`zfh `l~ khyr wjh. trhm yqwmwn bdhlk ftGmrk lhyb@. tfkr" "sHqan! ln 'stTy` dhlk bmlyyn lsnyn!". lkn hdh 'qS~ m ySl lyh l'mr. wl ystTy`wn lmDy l~ 'b`d mn dhlk. lmdh l? l'nhm l yrydwn bdhl jhd. lm ykhTr lnDbT wlt`lm bblhm. lqd..
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Haruki Murakami |
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2df00b6
|
The silence is so deep it hurts our ears
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Haruki Murakami |
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89f8520
|
If you don't know what you're looking for, it's not easy to look for it." Erika"
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Haruki Murakami |