10 Best Haruki Murakami Quotes From The Author Of Norwegian Wood

Haruki Murakami quotes, be it even their writing is surreal enough to transport you to the wondrous writing he scatters through his works. Norwegian Wood, a work by him, one of my favourite, is not only a stellar piece but equal parts scintillating and soothing.

Scattering today some slices of my favourite writer’s stardust…

When the lockdown of 2020 happened, it brought with it numerous challenges apart from being just “locked down”. For me, one of them is that I somehow got into a breakdown of sorts, a  reading slump, feeling too depressed to get back to the thing I love the most. Call it the melancholic atmosphere, the fears and inhibitions people around were carrying, call it my personal battles with the situation, the result was that I could barely concentrate on anything much. That is when I decided I will break my slump by re-reading one of my favourite books-Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami. I always feel he is not a writer but a magician who weaves mystic magic through his words. Along with Virginia Woolf, and Sylvia Plath I also indulged myself and pushed myself out of the dark quagmire by reading his quotes. Albeit I had never really comprehended his full power before this point.

After I finished Harry potter book 1 at this point, I successfully re-read and completed Norwegian Wood too. This time though, it was not a book I read. It was more like a road of sorts, taking me to my “recovery” from the pain of that time. I met those characters through this read, who were also fighting their mental blocks, demons of their mind, like me. It was therapeutic, almost recovering for me to be getting more “alive and back to life” alongside them. Totally healing, this time I was getting better in the company of these character “friends” I found in this book. An author who is been my lifelong, unspoken friend, faithful comrade and mentor for life.

This is how the process of my re-discovering Haruki Murakami has happened. It is like I have liked his writing, having religiously followed his quotes all my life. But this resurgence, re-discovery of sorts has been a soother, a kind of a “re-living it and how” for me. Getting lost in the woods of Norwegian, I managed to find myself back.

So today I thought of sharing with you some quotes by Haruki Murakami which helped me when I was in a dark place:

1

What happens when people open their hearts? They get better.

Indeed, they do. Absolutely relatable. The best possible, simplest yet most effective advice is always sought but never pursued. Murakami, through this one clearly wants us to be more “present” to our own selves, right? Absolutely, a point noted Captain!

2

I was always hungry for love. Just once, I wanted to know what it was like to get my fill of it-to to be fed so much love I couldn’t take any more. Just once.

Don’t we all wish to experience that at some point of time in our lives? Love is that experience which will fill you up like nothing else…

3

Why do people have to be this lonely? What’s the point of it all? Millions of people in this world, all of them yearning, looking to others to satisfy them, yet isolating themselves. Why? Was the earth put here just to nourish human loneliness?

A question I have been mulling over for a long. Why is loneliness so loved, guys?

4

Listen up – there’s no war that will end all wars.

Absolutely bang on this one. So relatable, especially in present times. War was, is and never will be the solution to anything.

5

Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, the hours are going by. The past increases, the future recedes. Possibilities decreasing, regrets mounting.

Well, the ultimate reality of life, is very crisply put down in a few words.

6

I have this strange feeling that I’m not myself anymore. It’s hard to put into words, but I guess it’s like I was fast asleep, and someone came, disassembled me, and hurriedly put me back together again. That sort of feeling.

I feel the vibe here people, do you? He really cracks through the psychology of pain’s metaphor, doesn’t he?

7

Don’t let appearances fool you. There’s always only one reality

Truly, appearances are merely the garb of a superficial dress-up we tend to don every time we want to hide our true selves. Which is like always.

8

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.

Indeed, a crooked line in a simple ECG also indicates you are ALIVE. So, point taken again Captain, pain makes your true self complete, making you go onwards forth on the journey of life.

9

I could hear the roots of loneliness creeping through me when the world was hushed at four o’clock in the morning.

This one literally gave me goosebumps guys. Anyone who has identified with this feeling knows where this one leads you right?

10

Despite your best efforts, people are going to be hurt when it’s time for them to be hurt.

Indeed, you can save someone from getting hurt but you cannot alter someone’s destiny to be hurt.

So, these were some of my favourite Haruki Murakami quotes that helped me when I was in a dark place. Hope you resonated with the surreal side of this celebrated Japanese Author too.

Related: 2 Books that turned my world upside down

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Adios Amigos!!