Try to imagine a life without timekeeping. You probably can’t. You know the month, the year, the day of the week. There is a clock on your wall or the dashboard of your car. You have a schedule, a calendar, a time for dinner or a movie. Yet all around you, timekeeping is ignored. Birds are not late. A dog does not check its watch. Deer do not fret over passing birthdays. Man alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.
—The Time Keeper (Mitch Albom)

“But the longer I’ve lived, the more I’ve lost what’s inside me—and ended up empty.”
—Kafka on the Shore (Hakuri Murakami)

“If talent’s a kind of natural energy, doesn’t it have to find an outlet?”
—Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami)