Quynh Ha

“It's basically the same in all periods of societies. If you belong to the majority, you can avoid thinking about lots of troubling things.'
'And those troubling things are all you /can/ think about when you're one of the few.'
'That's about the size of it,' she said mournfully. 'But maybe, if you're in a situation like that, you learn to think for yourself.'
'Yes, but maybe what you end up thinking for yourself /about/ is all those troubling things.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“You said you're going far away," Tamaru said. "How far away are we talking about?"

"It's a distance that can't be measured."

"Like the distance that separates one person's heart from another's.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“..finally he was just another ant, working and working until he died without meaning.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Once you pass a certain age, life becomes nothing more than a process of continual loss. Things that are important to your life begin to slip out of your grasp, one after another, like a come losing teeth. And the only things that come to take their place are worthless imitations. Your physical strength, your hopes, your dreams, your ideals, your convictions, all meaning, or then again, the people you love: one by one, they fade away. Some announce their departure before they leave, while others just disappear all of a sudden without warning one day. And once you lose them you can never get them back. Your search for replacements never goes well. It’s all very painful – as painful as actually being cut with a knife.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84