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“Things like that happen all the time in this great big world of ours. It is like taking a boat out on a beautiful lake on a beautiful day and thinking both the sky and the lake are beautiful. Things will go where they are supposed to go if you just let them take their natural course. Despite your best efforts, people are going to be hurt when it is time for them to be hurt. Life is like that.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“Love with complications. Scenery was the last thing on my mind.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“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, Norwegian Wood

“[...] he made it a rule never to touch a book by any author who had not been dead at least 30 years.

"That's the only kind of book I can trust", he said.

"It's not that I don't believe in contemporary literature," he added, "but I don't want to waste valuable time reading any book that has not had the baptism of time. Life is too short.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“So I made up my mind I was going to find someone who would love me unconditionally three hundred and sixty five days a year, I was still in elementary school at the time - fifth or sixth grade - but I made up my mind once and for all.��

-“Wow,�� I said. “Did the search pay off?��

“That’s the hard part,�� said Midori. She watched the rising smoke for a while, thinking. “I guess I’ve been waiting so long I’m looking for perfection. That makes it tough.��

-“Waiting for the perfect love?��

“No, even I know better than that. I’m looking for selfishness. Perfect selfishness. Like, say I tell you I want to eat strawberry shortcake. And you stop everything you’re doing and run out and buy it for me. And you come back out of breath and get down on your knees and hold this strawberry shortcake out to me. And I say I don’t want it anymore and throw it out the window. That’s what I’m looking for.��

-“I’m not sure that has anything to do with love,�� I said with some amazement.

“It does,�� she said. “You just don’t know it. There are time in a girl’s life when things like that are incredibly important.��

-“Things like throwing strawberry shortcake out the window?��

“Exactly. And when I do it, I want the man to apologize to me. “Now I see, Midori. What a fool I have been! I should have known that you would lose your desire for strawberry shortcake. I have all the intelligence and sensitivity of a piece of donkey shit. To make it up to you, I’ll go out and buy you something else. What would you like? Chocolate Mousse? Cheesecake?��

-“So then what?��

“So then I’d give him all the love he deserves for what he’s done.��

-“Sounds crazy to me.��

“Well, to me, that’s what love is��”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“You’re wasting your life being involved with me.��
“I’m not wasting anything.��
“But I might never recover. Will you wait for me forever? Can you wait 10 years, 20 years?��
“You’re letting yourself be scared by too many things,�� I said. “The dark, bad dreams, the power of the dead. You have to forget them. I’m sure you’ll get well if you do.��
“If I can,�� said Naoko, shaking her head.
“If you can get out of this place, will you live with me?�� I asked.
“Then I can protect you from the dark and from bad dreams. Then you’d have me instead of Reiko to hold you when things got difficult.��
Naoko pressed still more firmly against me.
“That would be wonderful,�� she said.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“No, we weren't lovers, but in a way we had opened ourselves to each other even more deeply than lovers do. The thought caused me a good deal of grief. What a terrible thing it is to wound someone you really care for--and to do it so unconsciously.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“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, Norwegian Wood

“All of us are imperfect human beings living in an imperfect world. We don't live with the mechanical precision of a bank account or by measuring all our lines and angles with rulers and protractors.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“People are strange when you're a stranger.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“I don't know, it's stupid being 20," she said. "I'm just not ready. It feels weird. Like somebody's pushing me from behind.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“I saw that she was crying. Before I knew it, I was kissing her. Others on the platform were staring at us, but I didn't care about such things anymore. We were alive, she and I. And all we had to think about was continuing to live.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“He wasn't so bad when the two of us came to see you, though. He was just his usual self."

Because you were there," said Naoko. "He was always like that around you. He struggled to keep his weaknesses hidden. I'm sure he was very fond of you. He made a point of letting you see only his best side. He wasn't like that with me. He'd let his guard down. He could be really moody. One minute he'd be chattering away, and the next thing he'd be depressed. It happened all the time. He was like that from the time he was little. He did keep trying to change himself, to improve himself, though."
Naoko recrossed her legs atop the sofa.
He tried hard, but it didn't do any good, and that would make him really angry and sad. There was so much about him that was fine and beautiful, but he could never find the confidence he needed. "I've got to do that, I've got to change this," he was always thinking, right up to the end. Poor Kizuki!"

Still though," I said, "if it's true that he was always struggling to show me his best side, I'd say he succeeded. His best side was all that I could see."

Naoko smiled. "He'd be thrilled to hear you say that. You were his only friend.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“Hatsumi had a pretty good idea that Nagasawa was sleeping around, but she never complained to him. She was seriously in love with him, but she never made demands.

'I don't deserve a girl like Hatsumi,' Nagasawa once said to me. I had to agree with him.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“Just speak your mind honestly. That's the best thing. It may hurt a little sometimes, and someone may get upset, but in the long run, it's for the best.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“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, Norwegian Wood

“You mean, if you knew me better, you'd force stuff on me like everybody else?

Toru: It's possible," I said. "That's how people live in the real world: forcing stuff on each other.

Midori: You wouldn't do that. I can tell. I'm an expert when it comes to forcing stuff and having stuff forced on you. You're just not that type. That's why I can relax with you. Do you have any idea how many people there are in the world who like to force stuff on people and have stuff forced on them? Tons! And then they make a big fuss, like, 'I forced her,' 'You forced me'! That's what they like. But I don't like it. I just do it 'cause I have to.”
― Haruki Murakami , Norwegian Wood

“Somewhere between 'not enough' and 'not at all.' I was always hungry for love. Just once, I wanted to know what it was like to get my fill of it - to be fed so much love I couldn't take any more. Just once. But they never gave that to me. Never, not once.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“I’m not very good at putting my feelings into words. That’s why people misunderstand me.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“Toru: What happens when people open their hearts?
Reiko: They get better.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“وقد يحدث أن يوجد مثل هذا النوع من الناس. أناس موهوبون بموهبة عجيبة، لكنهم لا يبذلون جهدا لتنظيمها. ينتهون إلى تشتيتها وتضييعها. رأيت نصيبي من هؤلاء الناس. في البداية تظن أنهم مذهلون. يستطيعون قراءة نوتة قطعة بالغة الصعوبة ثم يقومون بعزفها على خير وجه. تراهم يقومون بذلك فتغمرك الهيبة. تفكر" "سحقًا! لن أستطيع ذلك بملايين السنين!". لكن هذا أقصى ما يصل إليه الأمر. ولا يستطيعون المضي إلى أبعد من ذلك. لماذا لا؟ لأنهم لا يريدون بذل جهد. لم يخطر الانضباط والتعلم ببالهم. لقد أفسدوا هذه الموهبة لديهم فيكتفون بعزف الأشياء دون بذل جهد. وهناك من يقول لهم كم هم عظماء منذ وقت مبكر، لذلك يبدو بذل الجهد معهم أمرًا سخيفًا. تعطيهم القطعة التي يجتهد فيها صبي آخر ثلاثة أسابيع، فيؤدونها بنصف المدة، فيتصور المعلم أنهم بذلوا فيها ما يستطيعون من جهد ويسمح لهم أن يمروا إلى القطعة التالية. ويؤدون تلك بنصف المدة أيضا وينتقلون إلى ما بعدها. لا يعرفون ماذا يعني أن يشق عليهم المعلم. يخفقون في معرفة العنصر الحاسم الذي يتطلبه بناء الشخصية. إنها مأساة.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“لديَّ قدرة على الصبر على الآخرين أكثر من الصبر على نفسي، وأُحسن استخراج الأفضل لدى الآخرين مِن الأفضل لديَّ أنا نفسي. هكذا أنا. أنا الجانب المخربش من علبة الثقاب. لكن هذا جيد بالنسبة لي، ولا أمانع على الإطلاق. أن تكون علبة ثقاب من الدرجة الأولى أفضل من أن تكون عود ثقاب من الدرجة الثانية.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“And now I'm really, really, really tired and I want to fall asleep listening to someone tell me how much they like me and how pretty I am and stuff. That's all I want. And when I wake up, I'll be full of energy and I'll never make these kinds of selfish demands again. I swear. I'll be a good girl.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“Halfway through April Naoko turned twenty. She was seven months older than I was, my own birthday being in November. There was something strange about Naoko's becoming twenty. I felt as if the only thing that made sense, whether for Naoko or for me, was to keep going back and forth between eighteen and nineteen. After eighteen would come nineteen, and after nineteen, eighteen. Of course. But she turned twenty. And in the fall, I would do the same. Only the dead stay seventeen forever.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“What a terrible thing it is to wound someone you really care for--and to do it so unconsciously.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“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, Norwegian Wood

“It's basically impossible for everybody's justice to prevail or everybody's happiness to triumph, so chaos takes over.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“It was a small room with dim light coming in the window, reminiscent of old Polish films.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“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, Norwegian Wood

“I’m all through as a human being,�� she said. “All you’re looking at is the lingering memory of what I used to be. The most important part of me, what used to be inside, died years ago, and I’m just functioning by rote memory.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood