Haruki Murakami On Quotations

I realize full well how hard it must be to go on living alone in a place from which someone has left you, but there is nothing so cruel in this world as the desolation of having nothing to hope for.

Let me tell you something, Mari. The ground we stand on looks solid enough, but if something happens it can drop right out from under you. And once that happens, you've had it: things'll never be the same. All you can do is go on, living alone down there in the darkness...

The dead will always be dead, but we have to go on living.

What I want is for the two of us to meet somewhere by chance one day, like, passing on the street, or getting on the same bus.

As time goes on, you'll understand. What lasts, lasts; what doesn't, doesn't. Time solves most things. And what time can't solve, you have to solve yourself.

Most human activities are predicated on the assumption that life goes on. If you take that premise away, what is there left?