Tamara Straetemans > Tamara's Quotes

“Life is a lot more fragile than we think. So you should treat others in a way that leaves no regrets. Fairly, and if possible, sincerely.”
― Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance

“Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, the hours are going by. The past increases, the future recedes. Possibilities decreasing, regrets mounting.”
― Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance

“Life is so uncertain: you never know what could happen. One way to deal with that is to keep your pajamas washed.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“I can bear any pain as long as it has meaning.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“That's what the world is , after all: an endless battle of contrasting memories.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Life is not like water. Things in life don't necessarily flow over the shortest possible route.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Most people are not looking for provable truths. As you said, truth is often accompanied by intense pain, and almost no one is looking for painful truths. What people need is beautiful, comforting stories that make them feel as if their lives have some meaning. Which is where religion comes from.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84 Book 1

“I am nothing. I’m like someone who’s been thrown into the ocean at night, floating all alone. I reach out, but no one is there. I call out, but no one answers. I have no connection to anything.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“As I see it, you are living with something that you keep hidden deep inside. Something heavy. I felt it from the first time I met you. You have a strong gaze, as if you have made up your mind about something. To tell you the truth, I myself carry such things around inside. Heavy things. That is how I can see it in you.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“You can keep as quiet as you like, but one of these days somebody is going to find you.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“What we call the present is given shape by an accumulation of the past.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Reality was utterly coolheaded and utterly lonely.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84 Book 1

“In a sense, I'm the one who ruined me: I did it myself.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“I'm a coward when it comes to matters of the heart. That is my fatal flaw.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Please remember: things are not what they seem.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“In this world, there is no absolute good, no absolute evil," the man said. "Good and evil are not fixed, stable entities, but are continually trading places. A good may be transformed into an evil in the next second. And vice versa. Such was the way of the world that Dostoevsky depicted in The Brothers Karamazov. The most important thing is to maintain the balance between the constantly moving good and evil. If you lean too much in either direction, it becomes difficult to maintain actual morals. Indeed, balance itself is the good.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Whenever she felt like crying, she would instead become angry—at someone else or at herself—which meant that it was rare for her to shed tears.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“A person's last moments are an important thing. You can't choose how you're born but you can choose how you die.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Things can be seen better in the darkness," he said, as if he had just seen into her mind. "But the longer you spend in the dark, the harder it becomes to return to the world aboveground where the light is”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“It's the same with menus and men and just about anything else: we think we're choosing things for ourselves, but in fact we may not be choosing anything. It could be that everthing's being decided in advance and we pretend we're making choices. Free will may be an illusion. I often think that.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“The body is not the only target of rape. Violence does not always take a visible form, and not all wounds gush blood.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“This may be the most important proposition revealed by history: 'At the time, no one knew what was coming.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Everybody feels safe belonging not to the excluded minority but to the excluding majority. You think, Oh, I’m glad that’s not me. It’s basically the same in all periods in all societies. If you belong to the majority, you can avoid thinking about lots of troubling things.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Even if you managed to escape from one cage, weren't you just in another, larger one?”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“I move, therefore I am.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Wherever there's hope there's a trial.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“But still," Ayumi said, "it seems to me that this world has a serious shortage of both logic and kindness."
"You may be right," Aomame said, "But it's too late to trade it in for another one.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“People need routines. It's like a theme in music. But it also restricts your thoughts and actions and limits your freedom. It structures your priorities and in some cases distorts your logic.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“If a person remains tense for a long time he might not notice it himself, but it’s like his nerves are a piece of rubber that has been stretched out. It’s hard to go back to the original shape.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“I was confident that I was a special person. But time slowly chips away at life. People don't just die when their time comes. They gradually die away, from the inside. And finally the day comes when you have to settle accounts. Nobody can escape it. People have to pay the price for what they've received. I have only just learned that truth.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84