Quotes from Coin Locker Babies

Ryū Murakami ·  393 pages

Rating: (5.2K votes)


“Every one of a hundred thousand cities around the world had its own special sunset and it was worth going there, just once, if only to see the sun go down.”
― Ryū Murakami, quote from Coin Locker Babies


“They don't realise that they've changed; they think it's the world that changed.”
― Ryū Murakami, quote from Coin Locker Babies


“There in that pool stained with green blood, he had learned two things: one was that all the pain stopped when you stopped fighting death; and the other was that as long as you could still hear your heart beating, you had to keep fighting back.”
― Ryū Murakami, quote from Coin Locker Babies


“The world's worst flavor combination was mango and menthol.”
― Ryū Murakami, quote from Coin Locker Babies


“TV sounds are all the same; there's no difference between the sound of the wind in Northern Ireland and the wind on a Polynesian island.”
― Ryū Murakami, quote from Coin Locker Babies



“I learned two important things about the sound I was searching for: that it had to be indirect, refracted or muffled in some way; and that the sound had to give the impression that it would continue forever- the sound of someone practicing piano heard faintly from an unknown direction, or the sound of gentle rain outside a window, punctuated by drops falling on the casement.”
― Ryū Murakami, quote from Coin Locker Babies


“He wakes! The steel giant wakes! Long, long ago he rose from the sea, with the blood of life streaming from his belly. And then they buried him with thunder...and...carrots...at Stonehenge. But now he wakes again. The Age of Rotten Fish is over; the Age of Steel and Bombs is upon us. And he had come to give us life and strength, to free us form these cells, to restore us once again to baseball and ping pong! Sent by God from the Great Beyond!!!”
― Ryū Murakami, quote from Coin Locker Babies


“I thought if I were beautiful enough, all my dreams would come true. But you don't steady beautiful forever; one day you wake up and it's gone, and then where are you? Dreams are made with blood and sweat and tears.”
― Ryū Murakami, quote from Coin Locker Babies


“Todo seguía igual que cuando dio el primer grito dentro de aquel casillero. Quizás ahora el casillero era más grande; esta tenía piscina y jardín, había un grupo de gente paseándose media desnuda y se permitía tener mascotas… Sí, tenía todo tipo de tonterías: museos, cines, clínicas psiquiátricas, pero seguía siendo un enorme casillero de monedas, y por muchas capas de camuflaje que te pongas a traspasar, si es que te da por traspasarlas, al final vuelves a estamparte contra una pared.”
― Ryū Murakami, quote from Coin Locker Babies


“Visto desde el espacio exterior, Tokio debe parecer una gran burbuja brillante en la que no hay lugar de donde esconderse de esa luz que parece atravesar todas las barreras; el cristal más ahumado y la más gruesa de las membranas, colándose hasta la última esquina de todas las habitaciones, al último escondrijo y la última grieta, a todos los nidos de los pájaros y a toda las colmenas. No había donde correr, ningún sitio en el que no pudieran encontrarte junto a tu sombra”
― Ryū Murakami, quote from Coin Locker Babies



“orang-orang yang tidak tahu apa yang paling mereka inginkan, pasti tidak akan mendapatkan apa pun”
― Ryū Murakami, quote from Coin Locker Babies


About the author

Ryū Murakami
Born place: in Sasebo, Nagasaki, Japan
Born date February 19, 1952
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Die Wirkung eines solchen Hauses auf seinen Besitzer ist unverkennbar. […] Es ist ein gegenseitiger Austausch von Würde, Bedeutung und Kraft, und jegliche Schönheit (oder deren Mangel) spinnt ständig wie ein hin und her sausendes Weberschiffchen von einem zum anderen geheime Fäden. Man schneide die Fäden durch, trenne den Menschen von dem, was von Rechts wegen sein Eigen und bezeichnend für ihn ist, und was zurück bleibt, ist ein seltsames Wesen, halb Erfolg und halb Versagen, wie die Spinne ohne Netz, das nie mehr sein wird, was es war, wenn ihm nicht alle seine Würden und Einkünfte zurück gegeben werden.”
― Theodore Dreiser, quote from The Financier


“Still the fact remains, he had me hooked. As he had, of course, from the beginning. I had been writing my book about Johnno from the moment we met.”
― David Malouf, quote from Johnno


“- The local prince had gotten a notion that the girl could spin straw into gold, the dwarf said. Brainless young idiot, but they’re all like that. If she could spin straw into gold, why was she living in a hovel? Anyway, Gramps said he’d do her spinning for her in return for part of the gold and her firstborn child. She agreed, but naturally when the baby was born she didn’t want to give him up. So Gramps agreed to a guessing game: if she could guess his name, she could keep the baby. Then he let her find out what his name was. She kept the baby and Gramps kept the gold, and everyone went home happy.

- I think I’m beginning to get the idea, Cimorene said. It’s not just spinning straw into gold that’s a family tradition, is it? It’s the whole scheme.

The dwarf nodded sadly.
- Right the first time. Only I can never make it work properly. I can find plenty of girls who’re supposed to spin straw into gold, and most of them suggest the guessing game, but I’ve never had even one who managed to guess my name.

- Oh, dear, said Cimorene.

- I even changed my name legally, so it would be easier, the dwarf said sadly. Herman isn’t a difficult name to remember, is it? But no, the silly chits can’t do it. So I end up with the baby as well as the gold, and babies eat and cry and need clothes, and the gold runs out, and I have to find another girl to spin gold for, and it happens all over again, and I end up with another baby. It isn’t fair!”
― Patricia C. Wrede, quote from Searching for Dragons


“Your Father knows your gifts, your hindrances, and the condition you're in at every moment. And He also knows something you can't possibly know--every single person who's in desperate need of receiving His touch through you.”
― Bruce H. Wilkinson, quote from The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life


“Sometimes I think that love is one big fairy tale. I wonder if people who say they are in love, if – really – they’ve just talked themselves into it. They want it so badly, they kind of make it happen. They fake it until they start believing their own story. Maybe that’s just sour grapes or something. Maybe because it doesn’t happen to me, I don’t want to think it happens to anyone else.”
― Elizabeth Chandler, quote from Summer in the City


Interesting books

Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance
(10.9K)
Hegemony or Survival...
by Noam Chomsky
The American
(5.2K)
The American
by Henry James
Fearless Fourteen
(77.7K)
Fearless Fourteen
by Janet Evanovich
Echoes
(10K)
Echoes
by Maeve Binchy
Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World
(12.5K)
Krik? Krak!
(6.3K)
Krik? Krak!
by Edwidge Danticat

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.