Everything was too sharp and clear, so that I could never te... - Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

"Nobody likes being alone that much. I don't go out of my way to make friends, that's all. It just leads to disappointment."

"This is one more piece of advice I have for you: don't get impatient. Even if things are so tangled up you can't do anything, don't get desperate or blow a fuse and start yanking on one particular thread before it's ready to come undone. You have to realize it's going to be along process and that you'll work on things slowly, one at a time."

"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."

"With my eyes closed, I would touch a familiar book and draw its fragrance deep inside me. This was enough to make me happy."

"Those were strange days, now that I look back at them. In the midst of life, everything revolved around death."