Quotes from Kafka on the Shore

I'm re-reading a few books recently, and one of them is Kafka on the Shore. First time I read the book I was sixteen. Despite the fact I really liked the book, years later the only things I could remember about the book are "a man that can talk to cats", "a boy deciding to be the toughest fifteen-year-old in this world", and a very beautiful library. But the quotes I liked seemed never changed. I bet when I was sixteen there were many things I couldn't understand (now there are still many things I couldn't understand), but the sentences just attracted me anyway. I put some of them here. This book in some sense helped me a lot, along with many other books from Haruki Murakami. 

 "Oshima reaches out and lays a hand on my knee in a totally natural gesture.  'Kafka, in everybody's life there is a point of no return. And in a very few cases, a point where you can't go forward anymore.  And we reach that point, all we can do is quietly accept the fact. That's how we survive. ' " (Ch. 17)

 " 'But what disgusts me even more are people who have no imagination. The kind T. S. Eliot calls hollow men. People who fill up that lack of imagination with heartless bits of straw, not even aware of what they’re doing. Callous people who throw a lot of empty words at you, trying to force you to do what you don’t want to. Gays, lesbians, straights, feminists, fascist pigs, communists, Hare Krishnas – none of them bother me. I don’t care what banner they raise. But what I can’t stand are hollow people.  When I'm with them I can't bear it, and end up saying things I shouldn't.' " (Ch. 19)

 " 'Actually, I'm able to talk to cats', Nakata said, ' I can understand what they say, that helps me locate the missing ones.' 
      Hagita nodded, ' I wouldn't put it past you'. 
      'But not long ago I found that I couldn't talk to cats any more, I wonder why.'
      'Things change everyday, Mr Nakata. With each new dawn it's not the same world as the day before. And you're not the same person you were, either, you see that what I'm saying? ' " (Ch. 20)

 " 'Have you ever been in love?' I asked.
      He stares at me, taken aback. 'What do you think? I'm not a starfish or a pepper tree. I'm a living, breathing human being. Of course I've been in love.'
      'That isn't what I mean,' I say, blushing.
      'I know,'  he says, and smiles at me sweetly. " (Ch. 23)

 " 'When I was 15,' Miss Saeki says with a smile, 'all I wanted was to go off to some other world, a place beyond anybody's reach. A place beyond the flow of time.'
    'But there's no place like that in this world.' 
    'Exactly, which is why I am living here, in this world where things are forever being damaged, where the heart is fickle, where the time flows past without a break.'" (Ch. 25)

 " 'Listen, every object is in flux. The earth, time, concepts, love, life, faith, justice, evil -- they are all fluid and in transition. They don't stay in one form or one place forever. The whole universe is like some big FedEx box. ' " (Ch. 30)

 " 'The strength I'm looking for isn't the type where you win or lose. I'm not after a wall that'll repel power coming from outside. What I want is the kind of strength to be able to absorb that kind of power, to stand up to it. The strength to quietly endure things - unfairness, misfortunes, sadness, mistakes, misunderstandings. ' " (Ch. 33)

 " ' There are a lot of things that aren’t your fault. Or mine, either. Not the fault of prophecies, or curses, or DNA, or absurdity. Not the fault of Structuralism or the Third Industrial Revolution. We all die and disappear, but that’s because the mechanism of the world itself is built on destruction and loss. Our lives are just shadows of that guiding principle. Say the wind blows. It can be a strong, violent wind or a gentle breeze. But eventually every kind of wind dies out and disappears. Wind doesn’t have form. It’s just a movement of air. You should listen carefully, and then you'll understand the metaphor.' " (Ch. 35)

 「結果的には確かにそういうことになってしまった」とガラスと呼ばれる少年は言う。「君はじゅうぶん深く傷つき、損なわれてしまった。そして君はこれからもずっとその傷を負い続けてしまった。そのことについてはかわいそうだと思う。てもね、それにもかかわらず、君はたぶんこう考えるべきなんだ。君にはまだそれを回復することができるんだ。君は若いし、タフだ。柔軟性にも富んでいる。傷口をふさぎ、頭をしっかりとあげて、前に進んでいくこともできる。でも彼女にはもうそんなことはできない。彼女はただそのまま失われているしかないんだ。誰がいいとか悪いとか、そういう問題じゃない。現実的にアドバンテージを持っているのはきみなんだ」 (第４３章)

 「いいかい、それはもうすでに起こってしまったことなんだ」とカラスと呼ばれる少年は続ける。「今更取り返しのつかないことだ。彼女はその時君を捨てるべきじゃなかったし、君は彼女に捨てられるべきじゃなかった。でも起こってしまったことというのは、粉々に割れてしまったお皿と同じだ。どんなに手を尽くしても、それはもとどおりにはならない。そうだね？」 (第４３章)

 Most of them are about changes. I didn't notice until I was putting all these quotes together -- of course it is also a topic that you can hardly avoid if you want to talk about literally anything. Unlike Miss Saeki, I never really wished my life could stop at a certain time point, but I can't say that I'm always excited for everything coming to me in the future.  It probably applies to most people, and each one of them has his/her own story. 

Last updated: November 2024