The best Haruki Murakami quotes, book by book
The top 3 according to 1,264 votes from people: Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg. · If you're in pitch blackness, all you can do is sit tight until your eyes get used to the dark. · Loving someone is like having a mental illness that’s not covered by health insurance.. (Updated Oct 15, 2020.)
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.
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.
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.
Norwegian Wood (1987).
-
3
Loving someone is like having a mental illness that’s not covered by health insurance.
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.
First Person Singular, "Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey" (2020).
-
5
You can hide memories, but you can’t erase the history that produced them.
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (2013).
-
6
People's memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive.
After Dark (2004).
-
7
Why do people have to be this lonely? What's the point of it all?
Sputnik Sweetheart (1999).
-
8
Even castles in the sky can do with a fresh coat of paint.
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.
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985).
-
10
Mediocrity is like a spot on your shirt, it never comes off.
Dance Dance Dance (1988).
-
11
The world would be a pretty dull place if it were made up only of the first-rate, right?
"Man-Eating Cats" (short story).
-
12
Like a person in a storm desperately grasping at a lamppost, he clung to his daily routine.
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (2013).
-
13
Kindness and a caring mind are two separate qualities. Kindness is manners.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
Is something missing?
Comments (6)
Norwegian Wood line about sitting tight in the dark got me through a really bad winter in 2017. Weird how a sentence can do that.
Same. I wrote it on the inside of my notebook.
The wall and the egg speech should be required reading. He said it in Jerusalem, to their faces. That takes guts.
"Loving someone is like having a mental illness that's not covered by health insurance" lol First Person Singular is underrated.
No Kafka on the Shore? "When you come out of the storm you won't be the same person who walked in" is the most quoted one on the internet by far.
Pretty sure that one is mostly a paraphrase that went viral, the real passage is longer. Probably why it's not here.