Haruki Murakami Quotes

If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.

Many people, especially young people, would like to be more independent and on their own. But it is very difficult and they suffer from feelings of isolation. I think that is one reason why young readers support my work.

When I am writing, I do not distinguish between the natural and supernatural. Everything seems real. That is my world, you could say.

I collect records. And cats. I don’t have any cats right now. But if I’m taking a walk and I see a cat, I’m happy.

George Orwell is half journalist, half fiction writer. I’m 100 percent fiction writer… I don’t want to write messages. I want to write good stories. I think of myself as a political person, but I don’t state my political messages to anybody.

In Japan, the writers have made up a literary community, a circle, a society. I think 90 percent of Japan’s writers live in Tokyo. Naturally, they make a community. There are groups and customs, and so they are tied up in a way.

Why do people have to be this lonely? What’s the point of it all? Millions of people in this world, all of them yearning, looking to others to satisfy them, yet isolating themselves. Why? Was the earth put here just to nourish human loneliness?

If you remember me, then I don’t care if everyone else forgets.

I am worrying about my country. I feel I have a responsibility as a novelist to do something.

I’m a writer. I don’t support any war. That’s my principle.

I used to run a full marathon in three hours and 25 or 26 minutes. Not any more.

I don’t want to express my opinion about actual politics, because if I do, I have to be responsible for my decision.

Please remember: things are not what they seem.

I’m kind of a big kettle. It takes time to get boiled, but then I’m always hot.

People’s memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive.

Mere humans who root through their refrigerators at three o’clock in the morning can only produce writing that matches what they do. And that includes me.

I get up early in the morning, 4 o’clock, and I sit at my desk and what I do is just dream. After three or four hours, that’s enough. In the afternoon, I run.