1Q84 Quotes

“You’re still young and healthy. Maybe that’s why you don’t understand what I am saying. Let me give you an example. Once you pass a certain age, life becomes nothing more than a process of continual loss. Things that are important to your life begin to slip out of your grasp, one after another, like a comb losing teeth. And the only things that come to take their place are worthless imitations. Your physical strength, your hopes, your dreams, your ideals, your convictions, all meaning, or, then again, the people you love: one by one, they fade away. Some announce their departure before they leave, while others just disappear all of a sudden without warning one day. And once you lose them you can never get them back. Your search for replacements never goes well. It’s all very painful—as painful as actually being cut with a knife. You will be turning thirty soon, Mr. Kawana, which means that, from now on, you will gradually enter that twilight portion of life—you will be getting older. You are probably beginning to grasp that painful sense that you are losing something, are you not?”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“I don't think it's a question of liking or disliking it," Tengo said..."It was the one thing he was best at." "Hmm. I see," Kumi said. She pondered this. "But that might very well be the best way to live your life.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“In the name of God, they stole her time and her freedom, putting shackles on her heart. They preached about God's kindness, but preached twice as much about his wrath and intolerance.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“After all, what does the stock market sell us if not the unfounded hope of a rosy future?”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Some things can't be solved just by going wild every now and then.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“In this world, there is no absolute good, no absolute evil," the man said. "Good and evil are not fixed, stable entities but are continually trading places.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84, #1, Vol. 2 of 2

“The leaders use their power to crush people's natural desire to think for themselves. It's foot binding for the brain.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Reality is endlessly cold and lonely.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“So you're thinking you'd rather not hand me a pistol?'
'They're dangerous. And illegal. And Chekov is qa writer you can trust.'
'But this is not a story. We're talking about the real word.'
Tamaru narrowed his eyes and looked hard at Aomame. Then, slowly opening his mouth, he said 'Who knows?”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“As he made his morning coffee, Tengo found himself silently wishing that this peaceful time could go on forever. If he said it aloud, some keen-eared demon somewhere might overhear him. And so he kept his wish for continued tranquility to himself. But things never go the way you want them to, and this was no exception. The world seemed to have a better sense of how you wanted things not to go.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Is this what it means to go back to square one? Most likely. He had nothing left to lose, other than his life.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“It was a cruel world though. More than half of all children died before they could reach maturity, thanks to chronic epidemics and malnutrition. People dropped like flies from polio and tuberculosis and smallpox and measles. There probably weren't many people who lived past forty. Women bore so many children, they became toothless old hags by the time they were in their thirties. People often had to resort to violence to survive. Tiny children were forced to do such heavy labor that their bones became deformed, and little girls were forced to become prostitutes on a daily basis. Little boys too, I suspect. Most people led minimal lives in worlds that had nothing to do with richness of perception or spirit. City streets were full of cripples and beggars and criminals. Only a small fraction of the population could gaze at the moon with deep feeling or enjoy a Shakespeare play or listen to the beautiful music of Dowland.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“You’re still young and healthy. Maybe that’s why you don’t understand what I am saying. Let me give you an example. Once you pass a certain age, life becomes nothing more than a process of continual loss. Things that are important to your life begin to slip out of your grasp, one after another, like a comb losing teeth. And the only things that come to take their place are worthless imitations. Your physical strength, your hopes, your dreams, your ideals, your convictions, all meaning, or, then again, the people you love: one by one, they fade away. Some announce their departure before they leave, while others just disappear all of a sudden without warning one day. And once you lose them you can never get them back. Your search for replacements never goes well. It’s all very painful—as painful as actually being cut with a knife. You will be turning thirty soon, Mr. Kawana, which means that, from now on, you will gradually enter that twilight portion of life—you will be getting older. You are probably beginning to grasp that painful sense that you are losing something, are you not?”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Insane" es un problema mental congénito, y se considera conveniente tratarlo con una terapia especializada. En cambio, "Lunatic" se refiere a una pérdida temporal del juivio debido al efecto de la luna.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Aomame said, "It's like the Tibetan Wheel of the Passions. As the wheel turns, the values and feelings on the outer rim rise and fall, shining or sinking into darkness. But true love stays fastened to the axle and doesn't move.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“He could well imagine what the moon had given her: pure solitude and tranquillity. That was the best thing the moon could give a person.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Tengo's lectures took on uncommon warmth, and the students found themselves swept up in his eloquence. He taught them how to practically and effectively solve mathematical problems while simultaneously presenting a spectacular display of the romance concealed in the questions it posed. Tengo saw admiration in the eyes of several of his female students, and he realized that he was seducing these seventeen- or eighteen-year-olds through mathematics. His eloquence was a kind of intellectual foreplay. Mathematical functions stroked their backs; theorems sent warm breath into their ears.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Considering the sense of powerlessness that such a state of affairs would bring about, to have people floating in a pool of mysterious question marks seems like a minor sin.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Truth is often accompanied by intense pain, and almost no one is looking for painful truths”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“A more pressing problem for me is that I have never been able to love anyone seriously. I have never felt unconditional love for anyone since the day I was born, never felt that I could give myself completely to that one person. Never once.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Good style happens in one of two ways: the writer either has an inborn talent or is willing to work herself to death to get it.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“That is why it is necessary for you to fasten your feelings to the earth—firmly, like attaching an anchor to a balloon.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“People need routines. It's like a theme in music. But it also restricts your thoughts and actions and limits your freedom. It structures your priorities and some cases distorts your logic.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“The pursuer's blind spot is that he never thinks he's being pursued.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“The warmth and the pain came as a pair, and unless he accepted the pain, he wouldn't feel the warmth. It was a kind of trade off.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“It is very difficult to logically explain the illogical.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“All I can do is live the life I have. I can’t trade it in for a new one. However strange and misshapen it might be, this is it for the gene carrier that is me.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Lumea nu este decat o lupta nesfarsita intre amintirile unor tabere opuse.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84 Book 1

“Life is so uncertain: you never know what could happen.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Violence does not always take physical form, and not all wounds gush blood.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84