NORWEGIAN WOOD BY HARUKI MURAKAMI: THE BEST QUOTES ABOUT LOVE, LIFE AND DEATH

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“Norwegian Wood” is a bestselling novel by Haruki Murakami, first published in 1987 in Japan. It’s a deeply introspective coming-of-age story that blends themes of love, loss, memory, and mental illness.

**Summary of Norwegian Wood:**

Toru Watanabe, a quiet and introspective college student in 1960s Tokyo, is haunted by the death of his best friend Kizuki. After Kizuki’s suicide, Toru reconnects with Naoko, Kizuki’s beautiful but emotionally fragile girlfriend. Their bond deepens into a complex relationship, but Naoko struggles with mental illness and eventually retreats to a sanatorium in the countryside.

While Toru tries to remain loyal to Naoko, he meets Midori, a lively and outspoken classmate who represents a more vibrant and open approach to life. Torn between these two women—Naoko’s melancholic world and Midori’s energetic presence—Toru is forced to confront his own identity, the meaning of love, and the inevitability of loss.

As the story unfolds, Toru faces a series of emotional trials, including further deaths and personal disillusionment, eventually emerging more self-aware but deeply scarred by the pain of growing up.

Here’s most memorable quotes from this book:

If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking

I’m not very good at putting my feelings into words. That’s why people misunderstand me.

No truth can cure the sorrow we feel from losing a loved one. No truth, no sincerity, no strength, no kindness can cure that sorrow. All we can do is see it through to the end and learn something from it, but what we learn will be no help in facing the next sorrow that comes to us without warning.

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.

Letters are just pieces of paper, Burn them, and what stays in your heart will stay; keep them, and what vanishes will vanish.

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.

I have a million things to talk to you about. All I want in this world is you. I want to see you and talk. I want the two of us to begin everything from the beginning

What happens when people open their hearts? “They get better.

Loving another person is a wonderful thing, and if that love is sincere, no one ends up tossed into a labyrinth. You have to have more faith in yourself.

What if I’ve forgotten the most important thing?
What if somewhere inside me there is a dark limbo where all the truly important memories are heaped and slowly turning into mud?…the thought fills me with an almost unbearable sorrow.

What a terrible thing it is to wound someone you really care for and to do it so unconsciously.

Despite your best efforts, people are going to be hurt when it’s time for them to be hurt.

Don’t you think it would be wonderful to get rid of everything and everybody and just go someplace where you don’t know a soul? Sometimes I feel like doing that. I really really want to do it sometimes.