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Kafka on the Shore QUOTES

Kafka on the Shore QUOTES

1 " If you remember me, then I don't care if everyone else forgets. "

― Haruki Murakami , Kafka on the Shore

2 " Most things are forgotten over time. Even the war itself, the life-and-death struggle people went through is now like something from the distant past. We’re so caught up in our everyday lives that events of the past are no longer in orbit around our minds. There are just too many things we have to think about everyday, too many new things we have to learn. But still, no matter how much time passes, no matter what takes place in the interim, there are some things we can never assign to oblivion, memories we can never rub away. They remain with us forever, like a touchstone. "

― Haruki Murakami , Kafka on the Shore

3 " Love can rebuild the world, they say, so everything's possible when it comes to love. "

― Haruki Murakami , Kafka on the Shore

4 " Time expands, then contracts, all in tune with the stirrings of the heart. "

― Haruki Murakami , Kafka on the Shore

5 " Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back. That's part of what it means to be alive. But inside our heads - at least that's where I imagine it - there's a little room where we store those memories. A room like the stacks in this library. And to understand the workings of our own heart we have to keep on making new reference cards. We have to dust things off every once in awhile, let in fresh air, change the water in the flower vases. In other words, you'll live forever in your own private library. "

― Haruki Murakami , Kafka on the Shore

6 " Every one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That’s part of what it means to be alive. "

― Haruki Murakami , Kafka on the Shore

7 " In everybody’s life there’s a point of no return. And in a very few cases, a point where you can’t go forward anymore. And when we reach that point, all we can do is quietly accept the fact. That’s how we survive. "

― Haruki Murakami , Kafka on the Shore

8 " When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about. "

― Haruki Murakami , Kafka on the Shore

9 " Even chance meetings are the result of karma… Things in life are fated by our previous lives. That even in the smallest events there’s no such thing as coincidence. "

― Haruki Murakami , Kafka on the Shore

10 " The sense of tragedy - according to Aristotle - comes, ironically enough, not from the protagonist's weak points but from his good qualities. Do you know what I'm getting at? People are drawn deeper into tragedy not by their defects but by their virtues.
...
[But] we accept irony through a device called metaphor. And through that we grow and become deeper human beings. "

― Haruki Murakami , Kafka on the Shore

11 " That’s how stories happen — with a turning point, an unexpected twist. There’s only one kind of happiness, but misfortune comes in all shapes and sizes. It’s like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story. "

― Haruki Murakami , Kafka on the Shore

12 " People soon get tired of things that aren't boring, but not of what is boring. "

― Haruki Murakami , Kafka on the Shore

13 " I don’t know what it means to live. "

― Haruki Murakami , Kafka on the Shore

14 " And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about. "

― Haruki Murakami , Kafka on the Shore

15 " Time weighs down on you like an old, ambiguous dream. You keep on moving, trying to sleep through it. But even if you go to the ends of the earth, you won't be able to escape it. Still, you have to go there- to the edge of the world. There's something you can't do unless you get there. "

― Haruki Murakami , Kafka on the Shore

16 " According to Aristophanes in Plato's The Banquet, in the ancient world of legend there were three types of people.
In ancient times people weren't simply male or female, but one of three types : male/male, male/female or female/female. In other words, each person was made out of the components of two people. Everyone was happy with this arrangment and never really gave it much thought. But then God took a knife and cut everyone in half, right down the middle. So after that the world was divided just into male and female, the upshot being that people spend their time running around trying to locate their missing half. "

― Haruki Murakami , Kafka on the Shore

17 " It's easy to forget things you don't need anymore. "

― Haruki Murakami , Kafka on the Shore

18 " When someone is trying very hard to get something, they don't. And when they're running away from something as hard as they can, it usually catches up with them. "

― Haruki Murakami , Kafka on the Shore

19 " If you think God’s there, He is. If you don’t, He isn’t. And if that’s what God’s like, I wouldn’t worry about it. "

― Haruki Murakami , Kafka on the Shore

20 " Writing things was important, wasn't it? Nakata asked.
'Yes, it was. The process of writing was important. Even though the finished product is completely meaningless. "

― Haruki Murakami , Kafka on the Shore