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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

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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
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Story
Misfortune
Point
Misfortunes
Happiness
Unhappiness
Comes
Unexpected
Tolstoy
Happens
Turning
Allegory
Stories
Size
Sizes
Kind
Shapes
Twist
Thinking
Happen
Twists

More quotes by Haruki Murakami

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I'm often asked what I think about as I run. Usually the people who ask this have never run long distances themselves. I always ponder the question. What exactly do I think about when I'm running? I don't have a clue.
Haruki Murakami
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Nobody likes being alone that much. I don't go out of my way to make friends, that's all. It just leads to disappointment.
Haruki Murakami
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two people can sleep in the same bed and still be alone when they close their eyes
Haruki Murakami
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Once a guy starts using a wig, he has to keep using one. It's, like, his fate. That's why wig makers make such huge profits. I hate to say it, but they're like drug dealers.
Haruki Murakami
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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?
Haruki Murakami
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When I'm running I don't have to talk to anybody and don't have to listen to anybody. This is a part of my day I can't do without.
Haruki Murakami
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You know what girls are like. They turn twenty or twenty-one and all of a sudden they start having these concrete ideas. They get super realistic. And when that happens, everything that seemed so sweet and lovable about them begins to look ordinary and depressing.
Haruki Murakami
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But intolerant,narrow minds with no imagination are like parasites that transform the host,change form,and continue to thrive. They're a lost cause, and I don't want anyone like that coming in here.
Haruki Murakami
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I began running on an everyday basis after I became a writer. As being a writer requires sitting at a desk for hours a day, without getting some exercise you'd quickly get out of shape and gain weight, I figured.
Haruki Murakami
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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
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I dream. Sometimes I think that’s the only right thing to do. To dream, to live in the world of dreams. But it doesn’t last forever. Wakefulness always comes to take me back.
Haruki Murakami
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Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.
Haruki Murakami
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Love can rebuild the world, they say, so everything's possible when it comes to love.
Haruki Murakami
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If you keep on writing for three years, every day, you should be strong. Of course, you have to be strong mentally, also. But in the first place, you have to be strong physically. That is a very important thing. Physically and mentally you have to be strong.
Haruki Murakami
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Sometimes when I think of life, I feel like a piece of driftwood washed up on shore.
Haruki Murakami
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It is a lonely life sometimes, like throwing a stone into the deep darkness. It might hit something, but you can’t see it. The only thing you can do is to guess, and to believe.
Haruki Murakami
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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.
Haruki Murakami
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I'm not a fast reader. I like to linger over each sentence, enjoying the style. If I don't enjoy the writing, I stop.
Haruki Murakami
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What's nurtured slowly grows well.
Haruki Murakami
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To be able to grasp something of value, sometimes you have to perform seemingly inefficient acts.
Haruki Murakami