Naoko Quotes

1. "Now, though, that meadow scene is the first thing that comes back to me. [...] And yet, as clear as the scene may be, no one is in it. No one. Naoko is not there, and neither am I. Where could we have disappeared to? How could such a thing have happened? Everything that seemed so important back then - Naoko, and the self I was then and the world I had then: where could they have all gone? It's true, I can't even bring back her face - not straight away, at least. All I'm left holding is a background, pure scenery, with no people at the front."
Author: Haruki Murakami

2. "When it's raining like this," said Naoko, "it feels as if we're the only ones in the world. I wish it would just keep raining so the three of us could stay together."
Author: Haruki Murakami

3. "It's a quiet place, so people talk quietly," said Naoko. She made a neat pile of fish bones at the edge of her plate and dabbed at her mouth with a handkerchief. "There's no need to raise your voice here. You don't have to convince anybody of anything, and you don't have to attract anyone's attention."
Author: Haruki Murakami

4. "She knew that my memories of her would fade. Which is precisely why she begged me never to forget her, to remember that she had existed. The thought fills me with an almost unbearable sorrow. Because Naoko never loved me."
Author: Haruki Murakami

5. "Like Naokuo, I'm not really sure what it means to love another person. Though she meant it a little differently. I do want to try my best though. I have to, or else I won't know where to go. Like you said before, Naoko and I have to save each other. It's the only was for us to be saved!"
Author: Haruki Murakami

6. "I read Naoko's letter again and again, and each time I read it I would be filled with the same unbearable sadness I used to feel whenever Naoko stared into my eyes. I had no way to deal with it, no place I could take it to or hide it away. Like the wind passing over my body, it had neither shape nor weight, nor could I wrap myself in it."
Author: Haruki Murakami

7. "With Naoko gone, I went to sleep on the sofa. I hadn't intended to do so, but I fell into the kind of deep sleep I had not in a long time, filled with a sense of Naoko's presence. In the kitchen were the dishes Naoko ate from, in the bathroom was the toothbrush Naoko used, and in the bedroom was the bed in which Naoko slept. Sleeping soundly in this apartment of hers, I wrung the fatigue from every cell of my body, drop by drop. I dreamed of a butterfly dancing in the half-light."
Author: Haruki Murakami

8. "Me lleva tiempo evocar su rostro. Y conforme vayan pasando los años, más tiempo me llevará. Es triste, pero cierto. Al principio era capaz de recordarla en cinco segundos, luego éstos se convirtieron en diez, en treinta segundos, en un minuto. El tiempo fue alargándose paulatinamente, igual que las sombras en el crepúsculo. Puede que pronto su rostro desaparezca absorbido por las tinieblas de la noche. Sí, es cierto. Mi memoria se está distanciando del lugar donde se hallaba Naoko. De la misma forma que se está distanciando del lugar donde estaba mi yo de entonces."
Author: Haruki Murakami

9. "I wrote a huge number of letters that spring: one a week to Naoko, several to Reiko, and several more to Midori. I wrote letters in the classroom, I wrote letters at my desk at home with Seagull in my lap, I wrote letters at empty tables during my breaks at the Italian restaurant. It was as if I were writing letters to hold together the pieces of my crumbling life."
Author: Haruki Murakami

10. "You're wasting your life being involved with me.""I'm not wasting anything.""But I might never recover. Will you wait for me forever? Can you wait 10 years, 20 years?""You're letting yourself be scared by too many things," I said. "The dark, bad dreams, the power of the dead. You have to forget them. I'm sure you'll get well if you do.""If I can," said Naoko, shaking her head."If you can get out of this place, will you live with me?" I asked."Then I can protect you from the dark and from bad dreams. Then you'd have me instead of Reiko to hold you when things got difficult."Naoko pressed still more firmly against me."That would be wonderful," she said."
Author: Haruki Murakami

11. "Reiko set the ball on the ground and patted my knee. "Look," she said, "I'm not telling you to stop sleeping with girls. If you're O.K. with that, then it's OK. It's your life after all, it's something _you_ have to decide. All I'm saying is that you shouldn't use yourself up in some unnatural form. Do you see what I'm getting at? It would be such a waste. The years nineteen and twenty are a crucial stage in the maturation of character, and if you allow yourself to become warped when you're that age, it will cause you pain when you're older. It's true. So think carefully. If you want to take care of Naoko, take care of yourself too." I said I would think about it."
Author: Haruki Murakami

12. "Tôi dã luôn yêu Naoko, và tôi v?n yêu cô ?y. Nhung gi?a Midori và tôi l?i t?n t?i m?t cái gì dó nhu d?nh m?nh. Nó có s?c m?nh không th? cu?ng l?i du?c và nh?t d?nh s? cu?n tôi d?n tuong lai. Cái mà tôi c?m th?y v?i Naoko là m?t tình yêu trong v?t, d?u dàng, và yên tinh vô cùng. Nhung cái mà tôi có v?i Midori l?i là m?t tình c?m khác h?n. Nó di theo ý riêng c?a nó, s?ng d?ng và hít th? và ph?p ph?ng và lay d?ng tôi cho d?n t?n c?i r? c?a b?n th?. Tôi không bi?t ph?i làm gì. Tôi hoang mang r?i. Tôi s? không phân bua gì cho mình dâu, nhung tôi tin ch?c là mình dã s?ng chân th?c nhu mình v?n bi?t. Tôi chua bao gi? nói d?i ai, và bao nam nay v?n luôn c?n tr?ng không làm cho ai ph?i dau kh?. V?y mà tôi th?y mình b? ném vào cái mê cung này dây. Sao l?i c? th? th? du?c? Tôi không lí gi?i n?i. Tôi không bi?t mình ph?i làm gì. Reiko, ch? có th? nói cho tôi bi?t du?c không? Ch? là ngu?i duy nh?t tôi có th? trông c?y d? du?c khuyên b?o..." (Thu gu?i Reiko Ishida. Toru Wantanabe)"
Author: Haruki Murakami

Naoko Quotes Pictures