One Thousand Summers

Generally, people who are good at writing letters have no need to write letters. They've got plenty of life to lead inside their own context. − Haruki Murakami,  A Wild Sheep Chase

"In autumn, the evening - the blazing sun has sunk very close to the mountain rim, and now even the crows, in threes and fours or twos and threes, hurrying to their roost, are a moving sight." From Sei Shonagon's "The Pillow Book". Chapter I. In spring, the dawn. .. Translation by Meredith McKinney, Penguin Classics, 2006

In poetry there are no teachers. One makes antiquity one’s teacher. Provided he steep his mind in the styles of antiquity and learn his diction from the great poets of old, who can fail to compose good poetry?   − Fujiwara no Teika, Eiga no taigai  詠歌大概 ( Essentials of Poetic Composition)  As quoted in Conversations with Shōtetsu , translated by Robert Brower

If I didn't hold her tight, I felt, she would fly off into pieces. — Haruki Murakami,  South of the Border, West of the Sun

While they’re still alive, people can become ghosts.   — Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

As the years pass, I will find myself longing for the sight of the midnight moon. 心にも あらで浮世に ながらへば 恋しかるべき 夜半の月かな

A story stays forever--if it is good and finds a place in the hearts of the right people.   — Haruki Murakami: In pursuit of new realism