Finally, the quote can be read as a response to an attention economy that rewards constant broadcasting. Moving quietly becomes a kind of discipline: choosing privacy, depth, and deliberate pace amid pressure to perform publicly. It suggests that silence can protect focus and preserve inner life.
Still, Murakami’s ending insists on contribution. The point isn’t to withdraw from the world, but to pass through it with care and leave it slightly more vivid—through creativity, decency, or beauty. Quietness becomes not an absence, but a style of presence whose effects remain after you’re gone. [...]