The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

by Haruki Murakami

IS IT POSSIBLE, in the final analysis, for one human being to achieve perfect understanding of another?

Newly unemployed, I found this kind of life refreshing. No more commuting to work on jam-packed subways, no more meetings with people I didn’t want to meet. And best of all, I could read any book I wanted, anytime I wanted.

the world’s full of things we can’t explain, and somebody’s got to fill that vacuum. Better to have somebody who isn’t boring than somebody who is.

“I’m sorry I lied,” I said. “I should never have done that. But the only reason I lied was because the truth was so difficult to explain.

“I’m only sixteen,” she said, “and I don’t know much about the world, but I do know one thing for sure. If I’m pessimistic, then the adults in this world who are not pessimistic are a bunch of idiots.”