Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

by Haruki Murakami

that convenient approximations bring you closest to comprehending the true nature of things.

“The mind is nothing you use,” I say. “The mind is just there. It is like the wind. You simply feel its movements.”

“When you speak of my hair, are you also speaking about something in you?”

Many are the women who can take their clothes off seductively, but women who can charm as they dress?

Nobody can outguess the future.

Embryonic amid devastation.

Kindness and a caring mind are two separate qualities. Kindness is manners. It is superficial custom, an acquired practice. Not so the mind. The mind is deeper, stronger, and, I believe, it is far more inconstant.”

“Many things will become clear for you over the course of the winter,”

Genius doesn’t specialize; genius is reason in itself.”

Whiskey, like a beautiful woman, demands appreciation. You gaze first, then it’s time to drink.

A little caution never hurt anyone. A good woodsman has only one scar on him. No more, no less. You get my meaning?”

“Listen. I may not be much, but I’m all I’ve got.

“Not me. There’s no reason why everyone has to listen to records in hi-fi. Having the violins on the left and the bass on the right doesn’t make the music more profound. It’s just a more complex way of stimulating a bored imagination.”

“How was it possible for a life of misery to be happy overall? But then I understood, that misery could be limited to the future.”

Now I could reclaim all I’d lost. What’s lost never perishes. I closed my eyes and gave myself over to sleep.