What we needed were not words and promises but a steady accumulation of small realities.

Time weighs down on you like an old, ambiguous dream. You keep on moving, trying to sleep through it. But even if you go to the ends of the earth, you won't be able to escape it. Still, you have to go there- to the edge of the world. There's something you can't do unless you get there.

I always feel like I'm struggling to become someone else. Like I'm trying to find a new place, grab hold of a new life, a new personality. I guess it's part of growing up; it's also an attempt to reinvent myself.

two people can sleep in the same bed and still be alone when they close their eyes

Why do I act like this, agreeing when I really disagree, letting people force me to do things I don't want to do?

Taking crazy things seriously is a serious waste of time.

Knowledge and ability were tools, not things to show off.

If you can’t understand it without an explanation, you can’t understand it with an explanation.

What we call the present is given shape by an accumulation of the past.

Life is not like water. Things in life don't necessarily flow over the shortest possible route.

You can keep as quiet as you like, but one of these days somebody is going to find you.

As time goes on, you'll understand. What lasts, lasts; what doesn't, doesn't. Time solves most things. And what time can't solve, you have to solve yourself.

Chance encounters are what keep us going.

Chance encounters are what keep us going.

Whatever it is you're seeking won't come in the form you're expecting.

What we seek is some kind of compensation for what we put up with.

Spend your money on the things money can buy. Spend your time on the things money can’t buy.

People's memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive.

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

Every one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That’s part of what it means to be alive.

The most important thing we learn at school is the fact that the most important things can't be learned at school.

Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.

No matter what they wish for, no matter how far they go, people can never be anything but themselves. That's all.

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.

Listen up - there's no war that will end all wars.

Anyone who falls in love is searching for the missing pieces of themselves. So anyone who's in love gets sad when they think of their lover. It's like stepping back inside a room you have fond memories of, one you haven't seen in a long time.

Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, the hours are going by. The past increases, the future recedes. Possibilities decreasing, regrets mounting.

No matter how much suffering you went through, you never wanted to let go of those memories.

Don't feel sorry for yourself. Only assholes do that.

Silence, I discover, is something you can actually hear.

Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.

If you can love someone with your whole heart, even one person, then there's salvation in life. Even if you can't get together with that person.

Even if we could turn back, we'd probably never end up where we started.

You have to dream intentionally. Most people dream a dream when they are asleep. But to be a writer, you have to dream while you are awake, intentionally.

For me, writing a novel is like having a dream. Writing a novel lets me intentionally dream while I'm still awake. I can continue yesterday's dream today, something you can't normally do in everyday life.

As a novelist, you could say that I am dreaming while I am awake, and every day I can continue with yesterday's dream. Because it is a dream, there are so many contradictions and I have to adjust them to make the story work. But, in principle, the original dream does not change.

I get up early in the morning, 4 o'clock, and I sit at my desk and what I do is just dream. After three or four hours, that's enough. In the afternoon, I run.

I started writing at the kitchen table after midnight. It took ten months to finish that first book; I sent it to a publisher and I got some kind of prize, so it was like a dream - I was surprised to find it happening.

Have your dream...What you need now more than anything is discipline. Cast off mere words. Words turn into stone. (from Thailand)

Don't tell me anymore. You should have your dream, as the old woman told you to. I understand how you feel, but if you put those feelings into words they will turn into lies. (from Thailand)

I dream. Sometimes I think that’s the only right thing to do. To dream, to live in the world of dreams. But it doesn’t last forever. Wakefulness always comes to take me back.

I have these realistic dreams and snap wide awake in the middle of the night. And for a while I can't work out what's real and what isn't... That kind of feeling. Do you have any idea what I'm saying?

You're afraid of imagination and even more afraid of dreams. Afraid of the resposibility that begins in dreams. But you have to sleep and dreams are a part of sleep. When you're awake you can suppress imagination but you can't supress dreams.

There are symbolic dreams-- dreams that symbolize some reality. Then there are symbolic realities -- realities that symbolize a dream. Symbols are what you might call the honorary town councillors of the worm universe. In the worm universe, there is nothing unusual about a dairy cow seeking a pair of pliers. A cow is bound to get her pliers sometime. It has nothing to do with me.

I often dream about the Dolphin Hotel.

Time weighs down on you like an old, ambiguous dream. You keep on moving, trying to sleep through it. But even if you go to the ends of the earth, you won't be able to escape it. Still, you have to go there- to the edge of the world. There's something you can't do unless you get there.

The good thing about writing book is that you can dream while you are awake...

Dreaming is the day job of novelists, but sharing our dreams is a still more important task for us. We cannot be novelists without this sense of sharing something.

If I stayed here, something inside me would be lost forever—something I couldn't afford to lose. It was like a vague dream, a burning, unfulfilled desire. The kind of dream people have only when they're seventeen.

In dreams you don't need to make any distinctions between things. Not at all. Boundaries don't exist. So in dreams there are hardly ever collisions. Even if there are, they don't hurt. Reality is different. Reality bites. Reality, reality.