Murakami - 1Q84

Of all the quotes in Murakami's books, this has always always been my favourite.

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. - Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

Omar Khayyam in the Gardens of Dreams, Kathmandu

Writing

José Saramago, the Nobel-laureate Portuguese novelist, poet, playwright and journalist recalled [of his grandfather who suffered a stroke and was taken to Lisbon for treatment], "He went into the yard of his house, where there were a few trees, fig trees, olive trees. And he went one by one, embracing the trees and crying, saying good-bye to them because he knew he would not return. To see this, to live this, if that doesn't mark you for the rest of your life," Saramago said, "you have no feeling."