Quote

People want to be bowled over by something special. Nine times out of ten you might strike out, but that tenth time, that peak experience, is what people want. That's what can move the world. That's art.

Haruki Murakami

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Haruki Murakami
Age: 75
Born: 1949
Born: January 12
Athletics Competitor
Essayist
Linguist
Novelist
Prosaist
Science Fiction Writer
Translator
University Teacher
Writer
Kyōto
Murakami Haruki
People
Times
Tenth
Moving
Peak
Experience
Strike
Art
Strikes
Might
Nine
Something
Ten
Time
Move
World
Special
Bowled

More quotes by Haruki Murakami

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I collect records. And cats. I don't have any cats right now. But if I'm taking a walk and I see a cat, I'm happy.
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The fresh smell of coffee soon wafted through the apartment, the smell that separates night from day.
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This is what it means to live on. When granted hope, a person uses it as fuel, as a guidepost to life. It is impossible to live without hope.
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When I was little, I had this science book. There was a section on 'What would happen to the world if there was no friction?' Answer: 'Everything on earth would fly into space from the centrifugal force of revolution.' That was my mood.
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Rousseau defined civilizations as when people build fences.
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I contented myself with whiskey, for medicinal purposes. It helped numb my various aches and pains. Not that the alcohol actually reduced the pain it just gave the pain a life of its own, apart from mine.
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This is one more piece of advice I have for you: don't get impatient. Even if things are so tangled up you can't do anything, don't get desperate or blow a fuse and start yanking on one particular thread before it's ready to come undone. You have to realize it's going to be a long process and that you'll work on things slowly, one at a time.
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But I didn't understand then. That I could hurt somebody so badly she would never recover. That a person can, just by living, damage another human being beyond repair.
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Memory is like fiction or else it's fiction that's like memory.
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The ocean was one of the greatest things he had ever seen in his life—bigger and deeper than anything he had imagined. It changed its color and shape and expression according to time and place and weather. It aroused a deep sadness in his heart, and at the same time it brought his heart peace and comfort.
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In a place far away from anyone or anywhere, I drifted off for a moment.
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You are entering a phase of your life in which many different things will occur...bad things that seem good at first and good things that seem bad at first.
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You’re optimistic one moment, only to be racked the next by the certainty that it will all fall to pieces. And in the end it does.
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That’s what love’s all about. You’re the only one having those wonderful feelings, but you have to go it alone as you wander through the dark your mind and body have to bear it all. All by yourself.
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With each passing moment I'm becoming part of the past. There is no future for me, just the past steadily accumulating.
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Sometimes, however, this sense of isolation, like acid spilling out of a bottle, can unconsciously eat away at a person’s heart and dissolve it.
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A deserted library in the morning - there's something about it that really gets to me. All possible words and ideas are there, resting peacefully.
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What do we talk about? Just ordinary things. What happened today, or books we've read, or tomorrow's weather, you know. Don't tell me you're wondering if people jump to their feet and shout stuff like 'It'll rain tomorrow if a polar bear eats the stars tonight!
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If you think about it, an unfair society is a society that makes it possible for you to exploit your abilities to the limit.
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Open your eyes, train your ears, use your head. If a mind you have, then use it while you can.
Haruki Murakami