# The best Haruki Murakami quotes, book by book

The wall and the egg, pitch blackness and waiting for your eyes to adjust, and love as a mental illness not covered by health insurance: Haruki Murakami's most quoted lines, from Norwegian Wood and Hard-Boiled Wonderland to First Person Singular and his Jerusalem Prize speech, each with its source.

- 1264 votes · 17 items
- Oct 15, 2020 · Grace Kelly
- https://even.best/en/l/5114/the-best-haruki-murakami-quotes-book-by-book

## Top 17

1. **Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg.** (124 · ▲132 ▼8) — Jerusalem Prize acceptance speech (2009).
2. **If you're in pitch blackness, all you can do is sit tight until your eyes get used to the dark.** (103 · ▲110 ▼7) — Norwegian Wood (1987).
3. **Loving someone is like having a mental illness that’s not covered by health insurance.** (91 · ▲101 ▼10) — First Person Singular, "On a Stone Pillow" (2020).
4. **No matter how vivid memories may be, they can’t win out against the power of time.** (78 · ▲87 ▼9) — First Person Singular, "Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey" (2020).
5. **You can hide memories, but you can’t erase the history that produced them.** (64 · ▲74 ▼10) — Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (2013).
6. **People's memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive.** (52 · ▲60 ▼8) — After Dark (2004).
7. **Why do people have to be this lonely? What's the point of it all?** (46 · ▲56 ▼10) — Sputnik Sweetheart (1999).
8. **Even castles in the sky can do with a fresh coat of paint.** (46 · ▲51 ▼5) — South of the Border, West of the Sun (1992).
9. **If your confusion leads you in the right direction, the results can be uncommonly rewarding.** (45 · ▲57 ▼12) — Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985).
10. **Mediocrity is like a spot on your shirt, it never comes off.** (42 · ▲57 ▼15) — Dance Dance Dance (1988).
11. **The world would be a pretty dull place if it were made up only of the first-rate, right?** (39 · ▲47 ▼8) — "Man-Eating Cats" (short story).
12. **Like a person in a storm desperately grasping at a lamppost, he clung to his daily routine.** (39 · ▲46 ▼7) — Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (2013).
13. **Kindness and a caring mind are two separate qualities. Kindness is manners.** (38 · ▲50 ▼12) — Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985).
14. **Numbers aren’t the important thing … what matters is deciding in your heart to accept another person completely.** (37 · ▲46 ▼9) — "The Kidney-Shaped Stone That Moves Every Day", Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (2005).
15. **Genius or fool, you don't live in the world alone.** (33 · ▲44 ▼11) — Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985).
16. **Grammar is like the air: someone higher up might try to set rules for its use, but people won't necessarily follow them.** (25 · ▲34 ▼9) — The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994).
17. **I never trust people with no appetite. It's like they're always holding something back on you.** (22 · ▲42 ▼20) — Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985).

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.