Dhanya Chandran > Dhanya's Quotes

“Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back. That's part of what it means to be alive. But inside our heads - at least that's where I imagine it - there's a little room where we store those memories. A room like the stacks in this library. And to understand the workings of our own heart we have to keep on making new reference cards. We have to dust things off every once in awhile, let in fresh air, change the water in the flower vases. In other words, you'll live forever in your own private library.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn't something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn't get in, and walk through it, step by step. There's no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That's the kind of sandstorm you need to imagine.

And you really will have to make it through that violent, metaphysical, symbolic storm. No matter how metaphysical or symbolic it might be, make no mistake about it: it will cut through flesh like a thousand razor blades. People will bleed there, and you will bleed too. Hot, red blood. You'll catch that blood in your hands, your own blood and the blood of others.

And once the storm is over you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“Surfing's a more profound kind of sport than it looks. When you surf, you learn not to fight the power of nature, even if it gets violent.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“Listen, Kafka. What you’re experiencing now is the motif of many Greek tragedies. Man doesn’t choose fate. Fate chooses man. That’s the basic worldview of Greek drama. And the sense of tragedy—according to Aristotle—comes, ironically enough, not from the protagonist’s weak points but from his good qualities. Do you know what I’m getting at? People are drawn deeper into tragedy not by their defects but by their virtues. Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex being a great example. Oedipus is drawn into tragedy not because of laziness or stupidity, but because of his courage and honesty. So an inevitable irony results.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“But if you knew you might not be able to see it again tomorrow, everything would suddenly become special and precious, wouldn’t it?”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“The silence grew deeper, so deep that if you listened carefully you might very well catch the sound of the earth revolving on its axis.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“A theory is a battlefield in your head.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“A question wells up inside me, a question so big it blocks my throat and makes it hard to breathe. Somehow I swallow it back, finally choosing another.
"Are memories such an important thing?"
"It depends," she replies, and closes her eyes. "In some cases, they're the most important thing there is.”
― Haruki Murakami

“Picture a bird perched on a thin branch," she [Miss Saeki] says. 'The branch sways in the wind, and each time this happens the bird's field of vision shifts. You know what I mean?'
I nod.
'When that happens, how do you think the bird adjusts?'
I shake my head. 'I don't know.'
'It bobs its head up and down, making up for the sway of the branch. Take a good look at birds the next time it's windy. I spend a lot of time looking out that window. Don't you think that kind of life would be tiresome? Always shifting your head every time the branch you're on sways?'
'I do.'
'Birds are used to it. It comes naturally to them. They don't have to think about it, they just do it. So it's not as tiring as we imagine. But I'm a human being, not a bird, so sometimes it does get tiring.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“I'm safe inside this container called me.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“Nakata’s empty inside. I finally understand that. Nakata’s like a library without a single book. It wasn’t always like that. I used to have books inside me. For a long time I couldn’t remember, but now I can. I used to be normal, just like everybody else. But something happened and I ended up like a container with nothing inside.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“Sheepish butlers' surgical bottle battles"
a tongue twister p.364”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“The trucker was a beefy man in his mid-forties, with arms like logs and a jutting belly, who was hauling fresh fish in a refrigerated truck.
"I hope you don't mind the fish smell," the driver said.
"Fish are one of Nakata's favorites," Nakata replied.
The driver laughed. "You're a strange one, aren't you."
"People tell me that sometimes."
"I happen to like the strange ones," the driver said. "People who look normal and live a normal life - they're the ones you have to watch out for."
"Is that so?"
"Believe me, that's how it goes. In my opinion, anyway."
"Nakata doesn't have may opinions. Though I do like eel."
"Well, that's an opinion. That you like eel."
"Eel is an opinion?"
"Sure, saying you like eel's an opinion."
Thus the two of them drove to Fujigawa.”
― Hakuri Murakami

“There's no such thing as absolutes.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“But irony deepens a person, helps them mature. It’s the entrance to salvation on a higher plane, to a place where you can find a more universal kind of hope.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“as individuals each of us is extremely isolated, while at the same time we are all linked by a prototypical memory.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“Whatever it is you’re seeking won’t come in the form you’re expecting.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“There’re all sorts of cats—just like there’re all sorts of people.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“Nakata never went into these conversations with cats expecting to be able to easily communicate everything. You have to anticipate a few problems when cats and humans try to speak to each other.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“She’s right – I do know the answer. But neither one of us can put it into words. Putting it into words will destroy any meaning.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they’re watching me. What I’ve done up till now, what I’m going to do – they know it all.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“Perhaps,” Oshima says, as if fed up. “Perhaps most people in the world aren’t trying to be free, Kafka. They just think they are. It’s all an illusion. If they really were set free, most people would be in a real bind. You’d better remember that. People actually prefer not being free.” “Including you?” “Yeah. I prefer being unfree, too. Up to a point. Jean-Jacques Rousseau defined civilization as when people build fences. A very perceptive observation. And it’s true—all civilization is the product of a fenced-in lack of freedom.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“Nakata had passed away calmly in his sleep, most likely not thinking of anything. His face was peaceful, with no signs of suffering, regret, or confusion. Very Nakata-like, Hoshino concluded. But what his life really meant, Hoshino had no idea. Not that anybody's life had more clear-cut meaning to it. What's really important for people, what really has dignity, is how they die. Still, how you live determines how you die. These thoughts ran through his head as he stared at the face of the dead old man.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“I know. It's easy to forget things you don't need anymore.”

Excerpt From: Haruki Murakami. “Kafka on the Shore.” iBooks.”
― Haruki Murakami , Kafka on the Shore

“In traveling, a companion, in life, compassion."
...
"I think it means that chance encounters are what keep us going.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“My grandpa always said asking a question is embarrass for a moment but not asking a question is embarrasing for a life time”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“Her skin retained a faint warmth, but it was already fading away.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“But Nakata wasn’t afraid of the darkness or how deep it was. And why should he be? That bottomless world of darkness, that weighty silence and chaos, was an old friend, a part of him already.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“A revelation leaps over the borders of the everyday. A life without revelation is no life at all. What you need to do is move from reason that ‘observes’ to reason that ‘acts’. That’s what critical.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“We're so caught up in our everyday lives that events of the past, like ancient stars that have burned out, are no longer in orbit about our minds. There are just too many thing we have to think about every day, too many new things we have to learn. New styles, new information, new technology, new terminology ... But still, no matter how much time passes, no matter what takes place in in the interim, there are some things we can never assign to oblivion, memories we can never rub away. They remain with us for ever, like a touchstone.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore