“All kinds of things are happening to me. Some I chose, some I didn't. I don't know how to tell one from the other anymore. What I mean is, it feels like everything's been decided in advance—that I'm following a path somebody else has already mapped out for me. It doesn't matter how much I think things over, how much effort I put into it. In fact, the harder I try, the more I lose my sense of who I am. It's like my identity's an orbit that I've strayed far away from, and that really hurts. But more than that, it scares me.”
More from Haruki Murakami
“You wait for the right moment, and it will come to you. You need confidence that you will…”
“No matter how far you travel, you can never get away from yourself.”
“Time weighs down on you like an old, ambiguous dream. You keep on moving, trying to slip…”
“If you remember me, then I don't care if everyone else forgets.”