“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”
Work
In 1982, having sold his jazz bar to devote himself to writing, Murakami began running to keep fit. A year later, he'd completed a solo course from Athens to Marathon, and now, after dozens of such races, not to mention triathlons and a dozen critically acclaimed books, he reflects upon the influence the sport has had on his life and--even more important--on his writing.Equal parts training log, travelogue, and reminiscence, this revealing memoir covers his four-month preparation for the 2005 New York City Marathon and takes us to places ranging from Tokyo's Jingu Gaien gardens, where he once shared the course with an Olympian, to the Charles River in Boston among young women who outpace him. Through this marvelous lens of sport emerges a panorama of memories and insights: the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer, his greatest triumphs and disappointments, his passion for vintage LPs, and the experience, after fifty, of seeing his race times improve and then fall back.By turns funny and sobering, playful and philosophical, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is rich and revelatory, both for fans of this masterful yet guardedly private writer and for the exploding population of athletes who find similar satisfaction in running.From the Hardcover edition.
Quotes
Showing 1-15 of 15
Haruki Murakami
Canonical work source
“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”
“I'll be happy if running and I can grow old together.”
“If you're young and talented, it's like you have wings.”
“I'm often asked what I think about as I run. Usually the people who ask this have never run long distances themselves. I always ponder the question. What exactly do I think about when I'm ru...”
“Uživat ću i vrednovati ono što se ne može izraziti brojkama, tražit ću osjećaj ponosa koji dolazi s drugačijeg mjesta.”
“...nezdravoj duši potrebno je zdravo tijelo.”
“Većinu onoga što znam o pisanju naučio sam zahvaljujući svakodnevnom trčanju. To su sasvim praktične, tjelesne lekcije. Dokle mogu forsirati samog sebe? Koliko odmora mi je potrebno, a kolik...”
“Ponavljajući vježbe vaši mišići će shvatiti poruku koju im šaljete, kao i da takav i toliki napor očekujete od njih. Naši mišići vrlo su savjesni. Sve dok se pridržavamo valjanog postupka, o...”
“Na autocesti života čovjek se ne može baš uvijek nalaziti u traku za brzu vožnju. Ipak, ne želim opetovano ponavljati iste grške. Najbolje je učiti na pogreškama i to pokazati na djelu kad s...”
“Tako činjenica da sam ja ja i nitko drugi postaje jedna od mojih najvećih prednosti, Emocionalna patnja cijena je koju osoba plaća da bi bila nezavisna.”
“Što sam stariji, to polako ali sve jasnije shvaćam da su te vrste boli i patnje nužan dio života. Razmislite li o tome, shvatit ćete da je to tako jer se ljudi razlikuju jedni od drugih po t...”
“The thoughts that occur to me while I’m running are like clouds in the sky. Clouds of all different sizes. They come and they go, while the sky remains the same sky always. The clouds are me...”
“You make do with what you have. As you age you learn even to be happy with what you have. That’s one of the few good points of growing older.”
“Los pensamientos que acuden a mi mente cuando corro se parecen a las nubes del cielo. Nubes de diversas formas y tamaños. Nubes que vienen y se van. Pero el cielo siempre es el cielo. Las nu...”
“People sometimes sneer at those who run every day, claiming they’ll go to any length to live longer. But I don’t think that’s the reason most people run. Most runners run not because they wa...”