Haruki Murakami
Most people dream a dream when they are asleep. But to be a writer, you have to dream while you are awake, intentionally. So I get up early in the morning, 4 o'clock, and I sit at my desk and what I do is just dream. After three or four hours, that's enough. In the afternoon, I run. The next day, the dream will continue.Collection: Morning
I get up early in the morning, 4 o'clock, and I sit at my desk and what I do is just dream. After three or four hours, that's enough. In the afternoon, I run.Collection: Morning
When I write about a 15-year old, I jump, I return to the days when I was that age. It's like a time machine. I can remember everything. I can feel the wind. I can smell the air. Very actually. Very vividly.Collection: Age
I didn't read so much Japanese literature. Because my father was a teacher of Japanese literature, I just wanted to do something else.Collection: Teacher
I lost some of my friends because I got so famous, people who just assumed that I would be different now. I felt like everyone hated me. That is the most unhappy time of my life.Collection: Famous
I think history is collective memories. In writing, I'm using my own memory, and I'm using my collective memory.Collection: History
Team sports aren't my thing. I find it easier to pick something up if I can do it at my own speed. And you don't need a partner to go running, you don't need a particular place, like in tennis, just a pair of trainers.Collection: Sports
I know how fiction matters to me, because if I want to express myself, I have to make up a story. Some people call it imagination. To me, it's not imagination. It's just a way of watching.Collection: Imagination
Some people think literature is high culture and that it should only have a small readership. I don't think so... I have to compete with popular culture, including TV, magazines, movies and video games.Collection: Movies
You are 27 or 28 right? It is very tough to live at that age. When nothing is sure. I have sympathy with you.Collection: Age
I didn't want to be a writer, but I became one. And now I have many readers, in many countries. I think that's a miracle. So I think I have to be humble regarding this ability. I'm proud of it and I enjoy it, and it is strange to say it this way, but I respect it.Collection: Respect
Among the many values in life, I appreciate freedom most.Collection: Freedom
Young people these days don't trust anything at all. They want to be free.Collection: Trust
If you remember me, then I don't care if everyone else forgets.
There's no such thing as perfect writing, just like there's no such thing as perfect despair.
Whenever I write a novel, I have a strong sense that I am doing something I was unable to do before. With each new work, I move up a step and discover something new inside me.
Everything passes. Nobody gets anything for keeps. And that's how we've got to live.
I'm kind of a big kettle. It takes time to get boiled, but then I'm always hot.
Please think of me like an endangered species and just observe me quietly from far away. If you try to talk to me or touch me casually, I may get intimidated and bite you. So please be careful.
You have to dream intentionally. Most people dream a dream when they are asleep. But to be a writer, you have to dream while you are awake, intentionally.
If you want to talk about something new, you have to make up a new kind of language.
I try not to think about anything special while running. As a matter of fact, I usually run with my mind empty. However, when I run empty-minded, something naturally and abruptly crawls in sometime. That might become an idea that can help me with my writing.
I had no ambition to be a writer because the books I read were too good, my standards were too high.
I'm a writer. I don't support any war. That's my principle.
I like to read books. I like to listen to music.
I've run the Boston Marathon 6 times before. I think the best aspects of the marathon are the beautiful changes of the scenery along the route and the warmth of the people's support. I feel happier every time I enter this marathon.
Stories lie deep in our souls. Stories lie so deep at the bottom of our hearts that they can bring people together on the deepest level. When I write a novel, I go into such depths.
I'm not a fast thinker, but once I am interested in something, I am doing it for many years.
When I am writing, I do not distinguish between the natural and supernatural. Everything seems real. That is my world, you could say.
My heroes don't have anything special. They have something to tell other people but they don't know how, so they talk to themselves.
Since I have come to America, I am often asked whether my next novel will be set in America. I don't think it will. I think I will be living in America for some time to come, but while living in America, I would like to write about Japanese society from the outside.
Most young people were getting jobs in big companies, becoming company men. I wanted to be individual.
I used to run a full marathon in three hours and 25 or 26 minutes. Not any more.
Whenever I write a novel, music just sort of naturally slips in (much like cats do, I suppose).
Concentration is one of the happiest things in my life.
I collect records. And cats. I don't have any cats right now. But if I'm taking a walk and I see a cat, I'm happy.
In Japan, the writers have made up a literary community, a circle, a society. I think 90 percent of Japan's writers live in Tokyo. Naturally, they make a community. There are groups and customs, and so they are tied up in a way.
I began running on an everyday basis after I became a writer. As being a writer requires sitting at a desk for hours a day, without getting some exercise you'd quickly get out of shape and gain weight, I figured.
When I start to write, I don't have any plan at all. I just wait for the story to come.
I don't think of myself as an artist. I'm just a guy who can write.
I had my jazz club and I had enough money. So I didn't have to write for my living.
You have to be practical. So every time I say, if you want to write a novel you have to be practical, people get bored. They are disappointed. They are expecting a more dynamic, creative, artistic thing to say. What I want to say is: you have to be practical.
For novelists or musicians, if they really want to create something, they need to go downstairs and find a passage to get into the second basement. What I want to do is go down there, but still stay sane.
Mere humans who root through their refrigerators at three o'clock in the morning can only produce writing that matches what they do. And that includes me.
I am worrying about my country. I feel I have a responsibility as a novelist to do something.
Confidence, as a teenager? Because I knew what I loved. I loved to read; I loved to listen to music; and I loved cats. Those three things. So, even though I was an only kid, I could be happy because I knew what I loved.
You know, if you are kind of rich, the best thing is that you don't have to think about money. The best thing you can buy with money is freedom, time. I don't know how much I earn a year. I have no idea. I don't know how much I pay in taxes.
When I was a teenager, I thought how great it would be if only I could write novels in English. I had the feeling that I would be able to express my emotions so much more directly than if I wrote in Japanese.
It's true that at the time I was fond of Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan, and it was from them that I learned about this kind of simple, swift-paced style, but the main reason for the style of my first novel is that I simply did not have the time to write sustained prose.
I've been running a full marathon every year for more than 20 years, and my record is getting worse. Getting older, getting worse. It's natural.