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Book: After the Quake
Quotes of Book: After the Quake
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  1. Haruki Murakami _ After the Quake

    As usual, Junko thought about Jack London's 'To Build a Fire.' It was the story of a man traveling alone through the snowy Alaskan interior and his attempts to light a fire. He would freeze to death unless he could make it catch. The sun was going down. Junko hadn't read much fiction, but that one short story she had read again and again, ever since her teacher had assigned it as an essay topic during summer vacation of her first year in high school. The scene of the story would always come vividly to mind as she read. She could feel the man's fear and hope and despair as if they were her own; she could sense the very pounding of his heart as he hovered on the brink of death. Most important of all, though, was the fact that the man was fundamentally longing for death. She knew that for sure. She couldn't explain how she knew, but she knew it from the start. Death was really what he wanted. He knew that it was the right ending for him. And yet he had to go on fighting with all his might. He had to fight against an overwhelming adversary in order to survive. What most shook Junko was this deep-rooted contradiction.The teacher ridiculed her view. 'Death is really what he wanted? That's a new one for me! And strange! Quite 'original,' I'd have to say.' He read her conclusion aloud before the class, and everybody laughed.But Junko knew. All of them were wrong. Otherwise how could the ending of the story be so quiet and beautiful?"
    book-quotejack-londonlandscape-with-flatiron

  2. Haruki Murakami _ After the Quake

    I just gave them a little scare. A touch of psychological terror. As Joseph Conrad once wrote, true terror is the kind that men feel towards their imagination. {from Super-frog Saves Tokyo}
    book-quoteterrorjoesph-conrad

  3. Haruki Murakami _ After the Quake

    To understand something and to put that something into a form that you can see with your own eyes are two completely different things. If you could manage to do both equally well, living would be a lot simpler {from Honey Pie}
    book-quote

  4. Haruki Murakami _ After the Quake

    You know something?" she said."What?""I'm completely empty.""Yeah?""Yeah.
    book-quote

  5. Haruki Murakami _ After the Quake

    The world is full of incomprehensible words
    book-quote

  6. Haruki Murakami _ After the Quake

    I just gave them a little scare. A touch of psychological terror. As Joseph Conrad once wrote, true terror is the kind that men feel towards their imagination. {from Super-frog Saves Tokyo}"
    book-quoteterrorjoesph-conrad

  7. Haruki Murakami _ After the Quake

    He would eventually have to pass through the forest, but he felt no fear. Of course - the forest was inside him, he knew, and it made him who he was.
    book-quotelifefearreassurance

  8. Haruki Murakami _ After the Quake

    As usual, Junko thought about Jack London's 'To Build a Fire.' It was the story of a man traveling alone through the snowy Alaskan interior and his attempts to light a fire. He would freeze to death unless he could make it catch. The sun was going down. Junko hadn't read much fiction, but that one short story she had read again and again, ever since her teacher had assigned it as an essay topic during summer vacation of her first year in high school. The scene of the story would always come vividly to mind as she read. She could feel the man's fear and hope and despair as if they were her own; she could sense the very pounding of his heart as he hovered on the brink of death. Most important of all, though, was the fact that the man was fundamentally longing for death. She knew that for sure. She couldn't explain how she knew, but she knew it from the start. Death was really what he wanted. He knew that it was the right ending for him. And yet he had to go on fighting with all his might. He had to fight against an overwhelming adversary in order to survive. What most shook Junko was this deep-rooted contradiction.The teacher ridiculed her view. 'Death is really what he wanted? That's a new one for me! And strange! Quite 'original,' I'd have to say.' He read her conclusion aloud before the class, and everybody laughed.But Junko knew. All of them were wrong. Otherwise how could the ending of the story be so quiet and beautiful?
    book-quotejack-londonlandscape-with-flatiron

  9. Haruki Murakami _ After the Quake

    I want to write stories that are different from the ones I've written so far, Junpei thought: I want to write about people who dream and wait for the night to end, who long for the light so they can hold the ones they love. But right now I have to stay here and keep watch over this woman and this girl. I will never let anyone-not anyone-try to put them into that crazy box- not even if the sky should fall or the earth crack open with a roar.
    book-quotelove

  10. Haruki Murakami _ After the Quake

    From now on, little by little, you must prepare yourself to face death. If you devote all of your future energy to living, you will not be able to die well. You must begin to shift gears, a little at a time. Living and dying are, in a sense, of equal value.
    book-quote

  11. Haruki Murakami _ After the Quake

    I spent thirty-three years in another man's shadow. I went everywhere he went, I helped him with everything he did. I was in a sense a part of him. When you live like that for a long time, you gradually lose track of what it is you yourself really want out of life
    book-quote

  12. Haruki Murakami _ After the Quake

    What you see with your eyes is not necessarily real.
    book-quote
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