adj. extremely delicate and light in a way that seems too perfect for this world.
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I don’t go out of my way to make friends, that’s all. It just leads to disappointment.

— Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami Source: harukimurakami Haruki Murakamiharukimurakami
It was a beautiful day. The first smell of autumn was in the air. Red dragonflies flitted around the quadrangle, chased by neighbourhood kids swinging nets.

— Norwegian Wood by Murakami Haruki Source: harukimurakami Haruki Murakamiharukimurakami
‘I probably still haven’t completely adapted to the world,’ I said after giving it some thought. ‘I don’t know, I feel like this isn’t the real world. The people, the scene: they just don’t seem real to me.’

— Norwegian Wood by Murakami Haruki
Something inside me had dropped away, and nothing came in to fill the cavern.

— Norwegian Wood by Murakami Haruki
If you’re in pitch blackness, all you can do is sit tight until your eyes get used to the dark.

— Norwegian Wood by Murakami Haruki
I straightened up and looked out the plane window at the dark clouds hanging over the North Sea, thinking of what I had lost in the course of my life: times gone forever, friends who had died or disappeared, feelings I would never know again.

— Norwegian Wood by Murakami Haruki
I wrote a huge number of letters that spring: one a week to Naoko, several to Reiko, and several more to Midori. I wrote letters in the classroom, I wrote letters at my desk at home with Seagull in my lap, I wrote letters at empty tables during my breaks at the Italian restaurant. It was as if I were writing letters to hold together the pieces of my crumbling life.

— Norwegian Wood by Murakami Haruki
Midori pulled away from me with a smile on her face. ‘O.K., I’ll wait! I believe in you,’ she said. ‘But when you take me, you take only me. And when you hold me in your arms, you think only about me. Is that clear?’

— Norwegian Wood by Murakami Haruki
幸せになれると思ったらその機会をつかまえて幸せになりなさい。
私は経験的に思うのだけれど、そういう機会は人生に二回か三回しかないし、それを逃すと一生悔やみますよ。

— ノルウェイの森、村上春樹
But who can say what’s best? That’s why you need to grab whatever chance you have of happiness where you find it, and not worry about other people too much. My experience tells me that we get no more than two or three such chances in a life time, and if we let them go, we regret it for the rest of our lives.

— Norwegian Wood by Murakami Haruki
「一緒に死んでくれるの？」と緑は目をかがやかせて言った。
「まさか。危くなったら僕は逃げるよ。死にたいんなら君が一人で死ねばいいさ」
「冷たいのね」
「昼飯をごちそうしてもらったくらいで一緒に死ぬわけには行かないよ。夕食ならともかくさ」

— ノルウェイの森、村上春樹
I read Naoko’s letter again and again, and each time I read it I would be filled with the same unbearable sadness I used to feel whenever Naoko stared into my eyes. I had no way to deal with it, no place I could take it to or hide it away. Like the wind passing over my body, it had neither shape nor weight, nor could I wrap myself in it.

— Norwegian Wood by Murakami Haruki
Norwegian Wood

I love Murakami. If you haven’t noticed, I love his writing style and quote him regularly. Norwegian Wood is the first Murakami book I have ever read, and currently stands as one of my favorite books of all time.

I have been meaning to say something about it for a good period of time, but for the last little while I have let all the quotes just stand for themselves. The characters, storyline, and overall feel of the book are amazing, and no matter how many times I read it I find myself picking it up again. I’ve read it in both English and Japanese, and I find that Jay Rubin did an exceptional job with the translation, and that a lot of the “feel” you so often lose was preserved quite nicely.

It’s a story of young love laced with tragedy, and a coming of age during a crucial time in one’s life.

You don’t get it, do you?” I said. “It’s not a question of ‘what then.’ Some people get a kick out of reading railroad timetables. Some people make huge model boats out of matchsticks. So what’s wrong if there happens to be one person in the world who enjoys trying to understand you?

— Norwegian Wood by Murakami Haruki Source: frenchtoastfliessouth french toast flies southfrenchtoastfliessouth
Memory is a funny thing. When I was in the scene, I hardly paid it any mind. I never stopped to think of it as something that would make a lasting impression, certainly never imagined that eighteen years later I would recall it in such detail. I didn’t give a damn about the scenery that day. I was thinking about myself. I was thinking about the beautiful girl walking next to me. I was thinking about the two of us together, and then about myself again. It was the age, that time of life when every sight, every feeling, every thought came back, like a boomerang, to me. And worse, I was in love. Love with complications. The scenery was the last thing on my mind.

— Norwegian Wood by Murakami Haruki