Haruki Murakami Quotes

And yet it disturbs me to learn I have hurt someone unintentionally. I want all my hurts to be intentional.

I'm constantly meeting people that I hurt, you know? This is not - when I go and talk about these things, this is not a theoretical - it's not a theoretical apology. It's something that I live every day.

You act in different ways for your own personal well-being, and you don't think about the people you hurt along the way. wish I would have thought about it.

I let characters be human and flawed and relatable. When we do things that aren't that great, we can understand it.

I know that you cannot hate other people without hating yourself.

You have mourned over others; now sit down for a while and weep over your own self.

Instead of always asking yourself why so-and-so acts this or that way, learn to ask: "What's inside of me that wants to hurt itself over how anyone else acts?"

Understanding of the self only arises in relationship, in watching yourself in relationship to people, ideas, and things; to trees, the earth, and the world around you and within you. Relationship is the mirror in which the self is revealed. Without self-knowledge there is no basis for right thought and action.

For a long time I used to think this a silly, straw-splitting distinction: how could you hate what a man did and not hate the man? But years later it occurred to me that there was one man to whom I had been doing this all my life - namely myself.

If you could leave your selfishness, you would see how you've been torturing your soul.

I think it's really important to find out why people hurt you or try to oppose you or whatever.

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.

My mom can't defend herself to the world. She is such an amazing woman, with such an open heart. It's a real hard line, and I crossed it. I took everyone's life story and assumed it would be a great thing to put on screen. I was being selfish and I feel so horrible about it. I feel so guilty.

The writer is someone who tears himself to pieces in order to liberate his neighbor.

Before my accident I was a little too... selfish and self-absorbed and for me, to now be at the place where I can kinda give back and inspire people. I'm blessed. I'm really blessed.

I think all of us, under certain circumstances, could be capable of some very despicable acts. And that's why, over the years, in my movies I've had characters who didn't care what people thought about them. We try to be as true to them as possible and maybe see part of ourselves in there that we may not like.

I'm sure there are a lot of things I should have done differently. But I don't think I've stepped on anyone along the way. If I have, I didn't mean to.

When I was in my twenties, I strongly identified with Jane Austen's 'Emma' - her human failings mixed with a desire to do good.

I used to believe that hurting would make you more alive to the hurting of others. I used to believe in feeling bad because somebody else did. Now I'm not so sure of either.

It's easy to point out the evil in other people, but that can be found in all of us. That selfishness, that is something we all have in us. Sometimes you are successful at dealing with it, and sometimes you are not.

I look at something like 'Short Term 12,' and that character has a lot of pain, and I wouldn't have known how to portray that if I hadn't experienced pain myself.

While I'd like to believe that I'm not a bad or evil person, regardless, it's clear that some of my past actions have hurt or offended several women. And I probably deserve to be called a creep.

I now see that I never needed to be so mean or cruel.

I don't think any one relationship in my life has wrecked me. I think I am a collection of wrecks.

In the past, I've been a selfish player. I'll definitely admit that.