“There's no such thing as perfect writing, just like there's no such thing as perfect despair.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“For example, the wind has its reasons. We just don't notice as we go about our lives. But then, at some point, we are made to notice. The wind envelops you with a certain purpose in mind, and it rocks you. The wind knows everything that's inside you. And not just the wind. Everything, including a stone. They all know us very well. From top to bottom. It only occurs to us at certain times. And all we can do is go with those things. As we take them in, we survive, and deepen.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“Whenever I look at the ocean, I always want to talk to people, but when I'm talking to people, I always want to look at the ocean.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“Everyone who has something is afraid of losing it, and people with nothing are worried they'll forever have nothing. Everyone is the same.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“People with dark souls have nothing but dark dreams. People with really dark souls do nothing but dream.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“Still, in the end, we all die just the same.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“Things pass us by. Nobody can catch them. That's the way we live our lives.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“That's how it is with art. Mere humans who root through their refrigerators at three o'clock in the morning are incapable of such writing.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“If writers only wrote about things everybody knew, what the hell would be the point of writing?”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“I tell lies sometimes. The last time I lied was a year ago. I absolutely detest lying. You could say that lying and silence are the two greatest sins of present day society. Actually, I lie a lot, and I'm always clamming up.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“Whatever can't be expressed might as well not exist.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“Of course you keep telling yourself there's something to be learned from everything, and growing old shouldn't be that hard. That's the general drift.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“The worst thoughts usually strike in the dead of the night.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“Even if you don't acknowledge it, people die, and guys sleep with girls. That's just how it is.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“When the time comes, everybody’s got to end up where they belong. Only me, I didn’t have a place to call my own. It’s like musical chairs.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“If you're looking for fine art or literature, you might want to read some stuff written by the Greeks. Because to create true fine art, slaves are a necessity. That's how the ancient Greeks felt, with slaves working the fields, cooking their meals, rowing their ships, all the while their citizens, under the Mediterranean Sun, indulged in poetry writing and grappled with mathematics. That was their idea of fine art.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“The things we try our hardest not to lose, we really just put deep abysses in the spaces between them.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“The more honest I try to be, the more the right words recede into the distance.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“Expression and communication are essential; without these, civilization ends.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“I like the sky. You can look at it forever and never get tired of it, and when you don’t want to look at it anymore, you stop.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“Everybody's gotta die sometime. But until then we've still got fifty-some odd years to go, and a lot to think about while we're living those fifty years, and I'll just come right out and say it: that's even more tiring than living five thousand years thinking about nothing. Don't you think?”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“Whenever I wake up in a strange house I always feel as if the wrong soul got stuffed into the wrong body.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“The scent of the sea and the burning asphalt being carried on the southerly wind made me think of summers past. The warmth of a girl's skin, old rock n' roll, button-down shirts right out of the wash, the smell of cigarettes smoked in the pool locker room, faint premonitions, everyone's sweet, limitless summer dreams. And then one year(when was it?), those dreams didn't come back.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“Even so, everything was ever so slightly off, as if little by little the tracing paper had slipped irretrievably from the lines of summers past.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“Even from whatever miserable experience you might have, there is something to be learned.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“All of us are laboring under the same conditions. It's like we're all flying in the same busted airplane. Sure, some of us are luckier than others. Some are tough and some are weak. Some are rich and some are poor. But no one's superman - in that way, we're all weak. If we own things, we're terrified we'll lose them; if we've got nothing we worry it'll be that way forever. We're all the same. If you catch on to that early enough, you can try to make yourself stronger, even if only a little. It's okay to fake it. Right? There are no truly strong people. Only people who pretend to be strong.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“Telling lies is a really terrible thing. These days, lies and silence are the two greatest sins in human society you might say. In reality, we tell lots of lies, and we often break into silence. However, if we were constant;y talking year-round, and telling only the truth truth would probably lose some of its value.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“Coba kau pikirkan baik-baik. Kondisi semua orang sama saja. Sama seperti ketika kita naik pesawat rusak. Tentu saja di situ ada orang yang bernasib baik dan bernasib buruk. Ada yang tangguh, ada juga yang lemah; ada yang kaya, ada pula yang miskin. Hanya saja, tidak ada orang yang memiliki kekuatan yang jauh lebih besar daripada orang lain. Semua orang sama. Orang yang memiliki sesuatu selalu khawatir, jangan-jangan apa yang dia miliki sekarang akan hilang, sedangkan orang yang tidak memiliki apa-apa selalu cemas, jangan-jangan selamanya aku akan tetap menjadi orang yang tidak punya apa-apa. Semua orang sama! Karena itu, manusia yang menyadari hal itu lebih cepat harus berusaha menjadi sedikit lebih tangguh. Sekadar pura-pura pun tidak apa. Betul kan? Di mana pun tidak akan ada manusia yang tangguh. Yang ada hanyalah manusia yang pura-pura tangguh.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“When people are dead, you can forgive them 'most anything.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Hear the Wind Sing
“Anger. Infidelity. Death. Dark times—that’s what these memories were. Ceony had passed through Emery’s goodness and his hopes; it made sense to see his darkness, too. To see his hurts and his vices. To see the shadows cast behind those bright eyes.”
― Charlie N. Holmberg, quote from The Paper Magician
“The water moves on, a little faster than before, yet still the great river flows. It is as fluid and unpredictable in its moods as it has ever been, but it meanders within familiar banks.”
― William Dalrymple, quote from Nine Lives
“So, I know what messy is, and it isn’t love. No, love is supposed to be simple. It’s supposed to be about brushing raindrops off eyelashes, and looks across a crowded room. It’s supposed to be about watching a shooting star, or the way a leaf falls off a tree and floats to the ground. It’s supposed to be about apple peels.”
― Catherine McKenzie, quote from Spin
“When you need a haircut, it looks like you have no one to take care of you.”
― Lemony Snicket, quote from When Did You See Her Last?
“Is it fair to call The Princess Bride a classic? The storybook story about pirates and princesses, giants and wizards, Cliffs of Insanity and Rodents of Unusual Size? It's certainly one of the most often quoted films in cinema history, with lines like:
"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
"Inconceivable?"
"Anybody want a peanut?"
"Have fun storming the castle."
"Never get involved in a land war in Asia."
"Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something."
"Rest well, and dream of large women."
"I hate for people to die embarrassed."
"Please consider me as an alternative to suicide."
"This is true love. You think this happens every day?"
"Get used to disappointment."
"I'm not a witch. I'm your wife."
"Mawidege. That bwessed awangement."
"You seem a decent fellow. I hate to kill you."... You seem a decent fellow. I hate to die."
"Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while."
"Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!"
"There's a shortage of perfect breasts in this world. It would be a pity to damage yours."
And of course...
"As you wish.”
― Cary Elwes, quote from As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride
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.