Haruki Murakami

“There’s no such thing as perfect writing. Just like there’s no such thing as perfect despair.”

ve always been impressed by your insights, and I find the worldview that runs through all of your publications very convincing—namely that as individuals each of us is extremely isolated, while at the same time we are all linked by a prototypical memory. There have been times in my own life that I felt exactly this way.

A child who’s innately capable.

A dark, omnipresent pool of water.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau defined civilization as when people build fences. A very perceptive observation. And it's true—all civilization is the product of a fenced-in lack of freedom.

This puts me in mind of how refreshing water looks after someone's sprinkled it in a tiny hollow outside on a summer day.

A life without revelation is no life at all. What you need to do is move from reason that observes to reason that acts. That's what's critical.

Anyone who falls in love is searching for the missing pieces of themselves. So anyone who's in love gets sad when they think of their lover. It's like stepping back inside a room you have fond memories of, one you haven't seen in a long time

Anyone who falls in love is searching for the missing pieces of themselves. So anyone who's in love gets sad when they think of their lover. It's like stepping back inside a room you have fond memories of, one you haven't seen in a long time

The air was damp and stagnant, with a hint of something suspicious, as if countless ears were floating in the air, waiting to pick up a trace of some conspiracy