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121 " I wrote a huge number of letters that spring: one a week to Naoko, several to Reiko, and several more to Midori. I wrote letters in the classroom, I wrote letters at my desk at home with Seagull in my lap, I wrote letters at empty tables during my breaks at the Italian restaurant. It was as if I were writing letters to hold together the pieces of my crumbling life. "
― Haruki Murakami , Norwegian Wood
122 " Hey Kizuki, I thought, you're not missing a damn thing. This world is a piece of shit. The assholes are earning their college credits and helping to create a society in their own disgusting image. "
123 " I can be hurt, you know. I can get as exhausted as anybody else. I can feel so bad I want to cry, too. "
124 " I would stare at the grains of light suspended in that silent space, struggling to see into my own heart. What did I want? And what did others want from me? But I could never find the answers. Sometimes I would reach out and try to grasp the grains of light, but my fingers touched nothing. "
125 " Whenever I get into something, I shut out everything else. "
126 " sometimes I think I've got this hard kernel in my heart, and nothing much can get inside it. I doubt if I can really love anybody. "
127 " ما يجعل منا أسوياء هو أن نعرف أننا لسنا بأسوياء. "
128 " Life is like a box of cookies. "
129 " It’s because of you when I’m in bed in the morning that I can wind my spring and tell myself I have to live another good day. "
130 " As long as I kept my body moving I could forget about the emptiness inside. "
131 " El conocimiento de la verdad no alivia la tristeza que sentimos al perder a un ser querido. Ni la verdad, ni la sinceridad, ni la fuerza, ni el cariño son capaces de curar esa tristeza. Lo único que puede hacerse es atravesar este dolor esperando aprender algo de él, aunque todo lo que uno haya aprendido no le sirva para nada la próxima vez que la tristeza lo visite de improviso. "
132 " You're walking through a field all by yourself one day in spring and this sweet little bear cub with velvet fur and shiny little eyes comes walking along. And he says to you, 'Hi, there, little lady. Want to tumble with me?' So you and the bear spend the whole day in each other's arms, tumbling down this clover-covered hill. Nice, huh? "
133 " I have always loved Naoko, and I still love her. But there is a decisive finality to what exists between Midori and me. It has an irresistible power that is bound to sweep me into the future. What I feel for Naoko is a tremendously quiet and gentle and transparent love, but what I feel for Midori is a wholly different emotion. It stands and walks on its own, living and breathing and throbbing and shaking me to the roots of my being. "
134 " That's how people live in the real world: forcing stuff on each other. "
135 " I’m just kinda tired. Like a monkey in the rain. "
136 " April was too lonely a month to spend alone. In April, everyone around me looked happy. People would throw their coats off and enjoy each other’s company in the sunshine—talking, playing catch, holding hands. But I was always by myself "
137 " Just remember, life is a box of cookies. You know how they’ve got these cookie assortments, and you like some but you don’t like others? And you eat up all the ones you like, and the only ones left are the ones you don’t like so much? I always think about that when something painful comes up. ‘Now i just have to polish these off, and everything’ll be O.K.’ Life is a box of cookies. "
138 " Where the road sloped upward beyond the trees, I sat and looked toward the building where Naoko lived. It was easy to tell which room was hers. All I had to do was find the one window toward the back where a faint light trembled. I focused on that point of light for a long, long time. It made me think of something like the final throb of a soul's dying embers. I wanted to cup my hands over what was left and keep it alive. I went on watching the way Jay Gatsby watched that tiny light on the opposite shore night after night. "
139 " Love with complications. Scenery was the last thing on my mind. "
140 " Where I went in my travels, it's impossible for me to recall. I remember the sights and sounds and smells clearly enough, but the names of the towns are gone, as well as any sense of the order in which I traveled from place to place. "