Norwegian Wood Quotes & Sayings

It almost hurt to look at that far-off sky. — Haruki Murakami

I could never get excited about games you play with other people. I can't get into them. I lose interest. — Haruki Murakami

As long as I kept my body moving I could forget about the emptiness inside. — Haruki Murakami

Such perfect little circles are impossible to maintain. — Haruki Murakami

What more could you want if you were that smart and that beautiful? — Haruki Murakami

I suddenly thought about my old girlfriend, the one I had first slept with in my third year of high school. Chills ran through me as I realized how badly I had treated her. I had hardly ever thought about her thoughts or feelings or the pain I had caused her. She was such a sweet and gentle thing, but at the time I had taken her sweetness for granted and later hardly gave her a second thought. What was she doing now? I wondered. And had she forgiven me? — Haruki Murakami

But your problems are not going to continue for the rest of your life — Haruki Murakami

They're old enough to know how the world really works, so why are they so stupid? It's easy to talk big, but the important thing is whether or not you can clean up the shit. — Haruki Murakami

The years 19 and 20 are a crucial stage in the maturation of character, and if you allow yourself to become warped when you're that age, it will cause you pain when you're older. It's true. So think about it carefully. — Haruki Murakami

Hey, what is it with you? Why are you so spaced out? You still haven't answered me."
I probably still haven't completely adapted to the world," I said after giving it some thought. "I don't know, I feel like this isn't the real world. The people, the scene: they just don't seem real to me."
Midori rested an elbow on the bar and looked at me. "There was something like that in a Jim Morrison song, I'm pretty sure."
People are strange when you're a stranger. — Haruki Murakami

Count your blessings — Haruki Murakami

My sickness is a lot worse than you think: it has far deeper roots. And that's why I want you to go on ahead of me if you can. Don't wait for me. Sleep with other girls if you want to. Don't let thoughts of me hold you back. Just do what you want to do. Otherwise, I might end up taking you with me, and that is the one thing I don't want to do. I don't want to interfere with your life. I don't want to interfere with anybody's life. Like I said before, I want you to come to see me every once in a while, and always remember me. That's all I want. — Haruki Murakami

I know these things. I'm always right. It's got nothing to do with logic: I just feel it. For example, when I'm really close to you like this, I'm not the least bit scared. Nothing dark or evil could ever tempt me. — Haruki Murakami

I thought about Kizuki. "So you finally made Naoko yours," I heard myself telling him. Oh, well, she was yours to begin with. Now maybe, she's where she belongs. But in this world, in this imperfect world of the living, I did the best I could for Naoko. — Haruki Murakami

Let me just tell you this, Watanabe," said Midori, pressing her cheek against my neck. "I'm a real, live girl, with real, live blood gushing through my veins. You're holding me in your arms and I'm telling you that I love you. I'm ready to do anything you tell me to do. I may be a little bit mad, but I'm a good girl, and honest, and I work hard, I'm kind of cute, I have nice boobs, I'm a good cook, and my father left me a trust fund. I mean, I'm a real bargain, don't you think? If you don't take me, I'll end up going somewhere else. — Haruki Murakami

Just remember, life is a box of cookies. You know how they've got these cookie assortments, and you like some but you don't like others? And you eat up all the ones you like, and the only ones left are the ones you don't like so much? I always think about that when something painful comes up. 'Now i just have to polish these off, and everything'll be O.K.' Life is a box of cookies. — Haruki Murakami

She repeated what her mother had told me, that she had been moved when she heard me playing as she passed the house. She had seen me on the street a few times, too, and begun to worship me. She actually used that word: worship. It made me turn bright red. I mean, to be 'worshiped' by such a beautiful little doll of a girl! I don't think it was an absolute lie, though. I was in my thirties already, of course, and I could never be as beautiful and bright as she was, and I had no special talent, but I must have had something that drew her to me, something that was missing in her, I would guess. Which must have been what got her interested in my to begin with. I believe that now, looking back. And I'm not boasting. — Haruki Murakami

I once had a girl, or should I say she once had me. — John Lennon

I don't give a damn about power and money per se. Really, I don't. I may be a selfish bastard, but I'm incredibly cool about shit like that. I could be a Zen saint. The one thing I do have, though, is curiosity. I want to see what I can do out there in the big, tough world. — Haruki Murakami

Everybody feels like that to some extent," I said. "They're trying to express themselves and it bothers them when they can't get it right. — Haruki Murakami

Even a rat will choose the least painful route if you shock him enough — Haruki Murakami

That meadow scene is the first thing that comes back to me. The smell of grass, the faint chill of the wind, the line of the hills, the barking of a dog: these are the first things, and they come with absolute clarity. I feel as if I can reach out and trace them with a fingertip. And yet, as clear as the scene may be, no one is in it. — Haruki Murakami

You'd yell at the top of your lungs, but nobody would hear you, and you couldn't expect anyone to find you. — Haruki Murakami

If you hurt her any more than you already have, the wound could be too deep to fix. — Haruki Murakami

Not everybody is looking for a boyfriend with a sports car. — Haruki Murakami

It was that kind of kiss. But as with all kisses, it was not without a certain element of danger — Haruki Murakami

I read Naoko's letter again and again, and each time I read it I would be filled with the same unbearable sadness I used to feel whenever Naoko stared into my eyes. I had no way to deal with it, no place I could take it to or hide it away. Like the wind passing over my body, it had neither shape nor weight, nor could I wrap myself in it. — Haruki Murakami

She and I had needed each other more than either of us knew. — Haruki Murakami

When it's raining like this," said Naoko, "it feels as if we're the only ones in the world. I wish it would just keep raining so the three of us could stay together. — Haruki Murakami

You want to know why you felt that way about me even though you didn't love me. — Haruki Murakami

No matter what we said, people would believe what they wanted to believe. The more we struggled, the more vulnerable we'd be. — Haruki Murakami

There is absolutely nothing to be gained from sleeping with one strange woman after another. It just tires you out and makes you disgusted with yourself. — Haruki Murakami

I found a Bill Evans record in the bookcase and was listening to it while drying my hair when I realized that it was the record I had played in Naoko's room on the night of her birthday, the night she cried and I took her in my arms. That had happened only six months earlier, but it felt like something from a much remoter past. Maybe it felt that way because I had thought about it so often-too often, to the point where it had distorted my sense of time. — Haruki Murakami

Here," he said, "get yourself some healthy food. You look awful." I said he had done more than enough for me and that I couldn't accept money on top of everything else, but he refused to take it back.
"It's not money," he said, "it's my feelings. Don't think about it too much, just take it."
All I could do was thank him and accept the money. — Haruki Murakami

If you need me, use me. Don't you see? — Haruki Murakami

Despite your best effort, people are going to hurt when it's time for them to be hurt. Life is like that. — Haruki Murakami

I have always loved Naoko, and I still loved her. But there is a decisive finality to what exists between Midori and me. — Haruki Murakami

I'll never forget you," I said. "I could never forget you. — Haruki Murakami

What a terrible thing it is to wound someone you really care for and to do it so unconsciously. — Haruki Murakami

I think of you now mare than ever. It's raining today. — Haruki Murakami

Thinking of all I had lost in the course of my life: times gone for ever, friends who had died or disappeared, feelings I would never know again. — Haruki Murakami

Like my hairstyle?" she asked.
"It's great."
"How great?"
"Great enough to knock down all the trees in all the forests of the world. — Haruki Murakami

I loved Midori. And I had probably known as much for a while. I had just been avoiding the conclusion for a very long time. — Haruki Murakami

What do we talk about? Just ordinary things. What happened today, or books we've read, or tomorrow's weather, you know. Don't tell me you're wondering if people jump to their feet and shout stuff like 'It'll rain tomorrow if a polar bear eats the stars tonight! — Haruki Murakami

Here I was, seeing you almost every week, and talking with you, and knowing that the only one in your heart was Kizuki. It hurt. It really hurt. And I think that's why I slept with girls I didn't know. — Haruki Murakami

I was at that age, that time of life when every sight, every feeling, every thought came back, like a boomerang, to me. And worse, I was in love. — Haruki Murakami

I could never tell what was going on inside the pretty heads of the girls that Naoko brought along, and they probably couldn't understand me, either. — Haruki Murakami

(When asked "Was the model for Midori (a character in Norwegian Wood) modeled after your wife?")
I showed your message to my wife. She got mad and yelled: "What would make them think I was the model for Midori?!" She told me to fix the misunderstanding immediately, so that's why I'm writing this reply now. Please stop causing problems in my household. Thank you. — Haruki Murakami

Once upon a time, you dragged a part of me into the world of the dead, and now Naoko has dragged another pat of me into that world. — Haruki Murakami

She was the kind of person who took care of things by herself. She'd never ask anybody for advice or help. It wasn't a matter of pride, I think. She just did what seemed natural to her. — Haruki Murakami

So after he died, I didn't know how to relate to other people. I didn't know what it means to love another person. — Haruki Murakami

I wonder what ants do on rainy days? — Haruki Murakami

It's hard not being able to see you, but my life in Tokyo would be a lot worse if it weren't for you. — Haruki Murakami

Too many memories of her were crammed inside of me, and as soon as one of them found the slightest opening, the rest would force their way out in an endless stream, an unstoppable flood. — Haruki Murakami

Why do you guys all think girls with long hair are the classiest, the sweetest, the most feminine? I mean, I myself know at least two hundred and fifty unclassy girls with long hair. — Haruki Murakami

Where the road sloped upward beyond the trees, I sat and looked toward the building where Naoko lived. It was easy to tell which room was hers. All I had to do was find the one window toward the back where a faint light trembled. I focused on that point of light for a long, long time. It made me think of something like the final throb of a soul's dying embers. I wanted to cup my hands over what was left and keep it alive. I went on watching the way Jay Gatsby watched that tiny light on the opposite shore night after night. — Haruki Murakami

I'd swallow some whiskey and listen to the waves while I thought about Naoko. It was too strange to think that she was dead and no longer part of this world. I couldn't absorb the truth of it. I couldn't believe it. I had heard the nails being driven into the lid of her coffin, but I still couldn't adjust to the fact that she had returned to nothingness. — Haruki Murakami

It's a quiet place, so people talk quietly," said Naoko. She made a neat pile of fish bones at the edge of her plate and dabbed at her mouth with a handkerchief. "There's no need to raise your voice here. You don't have to convince anybody of anything, and you don't have to attract anyone's attention. — Haruki Murakami

One thing became crystal clear to me when I couldn't see you anymore. I realized that the only way I had been able to survive until then was having you in my life. When I lost you, the pain and loneliness really got to me. — Haruki Murakami

Reiko set the ball on the ground and patted my knee. "Look," she said, "I'm not telling you to stop sleeping with girls. If you're O.K. with that, then it's OK. It's your life after all, it's something you have to decide. All I'm saying is that you shouldn't use yourself up in some unnatural form. Do you see what I'm getting at? It would be such a waste. The years nineteen and twenty are a crucial stage in the maturation of character, and if you allow yourself to become warped when you're that age, it will cause you pain when you're older. It's true. So think carefully. If you want to take care of Naoko, take care of yourself too."
I said I would think about it. — Haruki Murakami

What makes us the most normal," said Reiko, "is knowing that we're not normal. — Haruki Murakami

Wasn't he the one who said you shouldn't trust anybody who calls himself an ordinar man? - Naoko — Haruki Murakami

The truth is "#9dream" is a descendant of "Norwegian Wood". Both are ghost stories. "She" in "Norwegian Wood" curses you with loneliness. The "Two spirits dancing so strange" in "#9dream" bless you with harmony. But people prefer loneliness to harmony. — David Mitchell

Her cry was the saddest sound of orgasm that I had ever heard. — Haruki Murakami

That one of our problems was our inability to recognize and accept our own deformities — Haruki Murakami

Girls have periods and boys jerk off. Everybody. — Haruki Murakami

I miss her every now and then, but finally, she didn't move me. I don't know, sometimes I think I've got this hard kernel in my heart, and nothing much can get inside it. — Haruki Murakami

Reiko moved on to the Beatles, playing "Norwegian Wood," "Yesterday," "Michelle," and "Something." She sang and played "Here Comes the Sun," then played "The Fool on the Hill." I laid seven matches in a row. — Haruki Murakami

No, it's not sick. I wish I could be the one to hold you, though, I said.
So hold me. Now. Right here. — Haruki Murakami

Maybe so, but I'm not just looking up at the sky and waiting for the fruit to drop. In my own way, I'm working hard. I'm working ten times harder than you are. — Haruki Murakami

Where I went in my travels, it's impossible for me to recall. I remember the sights and sounds and smells clearly enough, but the names of the towns are gone, as well as any sense of the order in which I traveled from place to place. — Haruki Murakami

So I'm not crazy after all! I thought it looked good myself once I cut it all off. Not one guy likes it, though. They all tell me I look like a first grader or a concentration camp survivor. What's this thing that guys have for girls with long hair? Fascists, the whole bunch of them! Why do guys all think girls with long hair are the classiest, the sweetest, the most feminine? I mean, I myself know at least two hundred and fifty unclassy girls with long hair. Really. — Haruki Murakami

I love you," I said to her. "From the bottom of my heart. I don't ever want to let you go again. But there's nothing I can do. I can't make a move."
"Because of her?"
I nodded. — Haruki Murakami

When Reiko left, I stretched out on the sofa and closed my eyes. I lay there steeping myself into silence when, out of nowhere, I thought of the time Kizuki and I took a motorcycle trip. That had been autumn too, I realized. Autumn how many years ago? Yes, four years ago. I recalled the small of Kizuki's leather jacket and the racket made by that red Yamaha 125cc bike. We went to a spot far down the coast, and came back the same evening, exhausted. Nothing special happened on that trip, but I remembered it well. the sharp autumn wind moaned in my ears, and looking up at the sky, my hands clutching Kizuki's jacket, I felt as if I might be swept into outer space. — Haruki Murakami

There was much about him that was fine and beautiful, but he could never find the confidence he needed. — Haruki Murakami

What had happened to the body I held in my arms that night last spring? — Haruki Murakami

I suppose it's all a matter of attitude. You could let a lot of things bother you if you wanted to - the rules, the idiots who think they're hot shit, ... — Haruki Murakami

Tell me how you could say such a thing, she said, staring down at the ground beneath her feet. You're not telling me anything I don't know already. 'Relax your body, and the rest of you will lighten up.' What's the point of saying that to me? If I relaxed my body now, I'd fall apart. I've always lived like this, and it's the only way I know how to go on living. If I relaxed for a second, I'd never find my way back. I'd go to pieces, and the pieces would be blown away. Why can't you see that? How can you talk about watching over me if you can't see that? — Haruki Murakami

I guess I don't really understand you yet,' I said. 'I'm not all that smart. It takes me a while to understand things. But if I do have time, I will come to understand you
better than anyone else in the world ever can. — Haruki Murakami

She was a keen observer, a precise user of language, sharp-tongued and funny. She could stir your emotions. Yes, really, that's what she was so good at - stirring people's emotions, moving you. And she knew she had this power ... I only realized later. At the time, I had no idea what she was doing to me. — Haruki Murakami