" You can’t tell anything from photographs. They’re just a shadow. The real me is far away. That won’t show up in a picture. "
- South of the Border, West of the Sun
" Until someone came and lightly rested a hand on my shoulder, my thoughts were of the sea. "
- South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami (via the-final-sentence)
" If I could cry, it might make things easier, but what would I cry over? I was too self centered to cry for other people, too old to cry for myself. "
- South of the Border, West of the Sun
" In order to pin down reality as reality, we need another reality to relativize the first. Yet that other reality requires a third reality to serve as its grounding. An endless chain is created within our consciousness and it is the maintenance of this chain which produces the sensation that we are actually here, that we ourselves exist. "
- South of the Border, West of the Sun
" I was always attracted not by some quantifiable, external beauty, but by something deep down, something absolute. Just as some people have a secret love for rainstorms, earthquakes, or blackouts, I liked that certain undefinable something directed my way by members of the opposite sex. For want of a better word, call it magnetism. Like it or not, it’s a kind of power that snares people and reels them in. "
- Haruki Murakami, South of the Border, West of the Sun (via ko-i)
" 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, yet it’s also an attempt to reinvent myself. By becoming a different me, I could free myself of everything. I seriously believed I could escape myself–as long as I made the effort. But I always hit a dead end. No matter where I go, I still end up me. What’s missing never changes. The scenery may change, but I’m still the same old incomplete person. The same missing elements torture me with a hunger that I can never satisfy. I guess that lack itself is as close as I’ll come to defining myself. "
- South of the Border, West of the Sun (Haruki Murakami) (via brownbagsurprise)
" I think you still love me, but we can’t escape the fact that I’m not enough for you. I knew this was going to happen. So I’m not blaming you for falling in love with another woman. I’m not angry, either. I should be, but I’m not. I just feel pain. A lot of pain. I thought I could imagine how much this would hurt, but I was wrong. "
- South of the Border, West of the Sun (via forestofvoices)
" Look at the rain long enough, with no thoughts in your head, and you gradually feel your body falling loose, shaking free of the world of reality. Rain has the power to hypnotize. "
- South of the Border, West of the Sun (via ko-i)
" I thought I could imagine how much this would hurt, but I was wrong. "
- South of the Border, West of the Sun (via todayithought)
" No matter where I go, I still end up me. What’s missing never changes. The scenery may change, but I’m still the same incomplete person. The same missing elements torture me with a hunger that I can never satisfy. I think that lack itself is as close as I’ll come to defining myself. "
- South of the Border, West of the Sun
