Wind/Pinball Quotes

“Looking at the ocean makes me miss people, and hanging out with people makes me miss the ocean.”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“All things pass. None of us can manage to hold on to anything. In that way, we live our lives.”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“There are no truly strong people. Only people who pretend to be strong.”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“How can those who live in the light of day possibly comprehend the depths of night?”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/ Pinball: Two Novels

“Why do you read books?” he asked. “Why do you drink beer?” I replied without glancing in his direction,”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“However miserable your situation, there is always something to learn.”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“Sometimes, I imagine how great it would be if we could live our lives without bothering other people.”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“People with dark hearts have dark dreams. Those whose hearts are even darker can’t dream at all.”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“On any given day, something can come along and steal our hearts. It may be any old thing: a rosebud, a lost cap, a favorite sweater from childhood, an old Gene Pitney record. A miscellany of trivia with no home to call their own. Lingering for two or three days, that something soon disappears, returning to the darkness. There are wells, deep wells, dug in our hearts. Birds fly over them."

-from "Pinball, 1973”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“Ascribing meaning to life is a piece of cake compared to actually living it."

-from "Hear the Wind Sing”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“What we shared was no more than a fragment of a time long dead. Yet memories remained, warm memories that remained with me like lights from the past. And I would carry those lights in the brief interval before death grabbed me and tossed me back into the crucible of nothingness.”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“All of us are laboring under the same conditions. It’s like we’re all flying in the same busted airplane. Sure, some of us are luckier than others. Some are tough and some are weak. Some are rich and some poor. But no one’s superman—in that way, we’re all weak. If we own things, we’re terrified we’ll lose them; if we’ve got nothing we worry it’ll be that way forever. We’re all the same. If you catch on to that early enough, you can try to make yourself stronger, even if only a little. It’s okay to fake it. Right? There are no truly strong people. Only people who pretend to be strong.”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“There can be no meaning in what will someday be lost. Passing glory is not true glory at all.”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: A Novel

“People are awkward creatures. A lot more awkward than you seem to realize.”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“We're all wrong, every one of us.”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“Am I happy? All I can say is I guess so. That's pretty much the way it is with dreams.”
― Haruki Murakami, Hear the Wind Sing / Pinball, 1973

“Civilization is communication,” the doctor said. “That which is not expressed doesn’t exist.”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“Writing honestly is very difficult. The more I try to be honest, the farther my words sink into darkness."

-from "Hear the Wind Sing”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“There are things in this world you can’t do a damn thing about.” “Like what?” “Like a rotten tooth, for example. One day it just starts aching. No one can ease the pain, no matter how hard they try to comfort you. It makes you furious with yourself. Next thing you know you’re furious with them because they aren’t pissed off with themselves. See how it escalates?”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/ Pinball: Two Novels

“There’s no such thing as a perfect piece of writing. Just as there’s no such thing as perfect despair.”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“It had been a long time since I felt the fragrance of summer: the scent of the ocean, a distant train whistle, the touch of a girl's skin, the lemony perfume of her hair, the evening wind, faint glimmers of hope, summer dreams.
But none of these were the way they once had been; they were all somehow off, as if copied with tracing paper that kept slipping out of place."

-from "Hear the Wind Sing”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“One could say that the greatest sins afflicting modern society are the proliferation of lies and silence. We lie through our teeth, then swallow our tongues."

-from "Heart the Wind Sing”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“On any given day, something can come along and steal our hearts. It may be any old thing: a rosebud, a lost cap, a favorite sweater from childhood, an old Gene Pitney record. A miscellany of trivia with no home to call their own. Lingering for two or three days, that something soon disappears, returning to the darkness. There are wells, deep wells, dug in our hearts. Birds fly over them.”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“Time goes by so damn fast.”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“I didn't know it would get this hot," she said. "It's hot as hell."
"Hell is hotter."
"Sounds like you've been there."
"I've heard it from someone. They make it hotter and hotter till you think you'll go crazy; then they move you someplace cooler for a while. Then when you're recovered a little they move you back again."
"So hell it's like a sauna."
"Yeah, more or less. But a few can't recover and go totally bonkers."
"So what happens to them?"
"They get sent up to heaven, where they're forced to paint the walls. You see, the walls in heaven have to be kept a perfect white. As a result, they have to keep painting from dawn till dusk every day. It messes up their respiratory systems big time.”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“it’s even harder to talk about girls who have died young: by dying, they stay young forever.”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“There can be no meaning in what will someday be lost. Passing glory is not true glory at all."

-from "Pinball, 1973”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“All things pass. None of us can manage to hold on to anything.

In that way, we live our lives."

-from "Hear the Wind Sing”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“In the end we all die anyway.”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels

“Each of us had all the troubles we could carry. They rained down on us from the sky, and we raced around in a frenzy to pick them up and stuff them in our pockets. Why we did that stumps me, even now. Maybe we thought they were something else.”
― Haruki Murakami, Wind/Pinball: Two Novels