Haruki Murakami Quotes - Page 10

The ones who did it can always rationalize their actions and even forget what they did. They can turn away from things they don't want to see. But the surviving victims can never forget. They can’t turn away. Their memories are passed on from parent to child. That’s what the world is, after all: an endless battle of contrasting memories.

To be a Russian writer at the end of the nineteenth century must have meant bearing an inescapably bitter fate. The more they tried to escape from Russia, the more deeply Russia swallowed them.

History cannot be erased or altered.Because that would mean killing yourself.

We had two black ski masks in the glove compartment. Why my wife owned a shotgun, I had no idea. Or ski masks. Neither of us had ever skied. But she didn't explain and I didn't ask. Married life is weird, I felt.

I can bear any pain as long as it has meaning.

But you know Hajime, some feelings cause us pain because they remain.

From the moment of my birth, I lived with pain at the center of my life. My only purpose in life was to find a way to coexist with intense pain.

When pain comes to me, I leave my physical self. It's just like quietly slipping into the next room when someone you don't want to meet comes along. I can do it very naturally. I recognize that the pain has come to my body; I feel the existence of the pain; but I am not there. I am in the next room.

Lo que quiero decir es que el dolor se vuelve crónico. Engullido por la vida diaria, uno deja de saber cuáles son las heridas. Pero están ahí. Así son las heridas: no se pueden coger y mostrar; las únicas que se pueden mostrar son las heridas menores.

Violence does not always take visible form, and not all wounds gush blood.

Tiesą, kaip tu ir sakei, dažniausiai lydi stiprus skausmas. O beveik niekas netrokšta skausmingos tiesos. Žmonėms reikia gražios ir jaukios pasakos, kuri leistų jiems bent truputį giliau pajusti savo gyvenimo prasmę. Būtent todėl atsiranda religijos.

What I mean to say is probably something like this: any single human being, no matter what kind of person he or she may be, is all caught up in the tentacles of this animal like a giant octopus, and is getting sucked into the darkness. You can put any kind of spin on it you like, but you end up with the same unbearable spectacle.

E se a minha vida não fôr mais do que um processo de materialização, através do qual eu dou forma a imagens latentes que vivem adormecidas em mim?

I dream. Sometimes I think that's the only right thing to do.

The answer is dreams. Dreaming on and on. Entering the world of dreams and never coming out. Living in dreams for the rest of time.

Dreams come from the past, not from the future. Dreams shouldn't control you-you should control them.

In dreams begins responsiblities.

I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. But it was not until much later that I was able to get any real sleep. In a place far away from anyone or anywhere, I drifted off for a moment.

Don't tell me anymore. You should have your dream, as the old woman told you to. I understand how you feel, but if you put those feelings into words they will turn into lies. (from Thailand)

I have these realistic dreams and snap wide awake in the middle of the night. And for a while I can't work out what's real and what isn't... That kind of feeling. Do you have any idea what I'm saying?