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. – Haruki Murakami
I’m not a fast thinker, but once I am interested in something, I am doing it for many years. – Haruki Murakami
I don’t know how many good books I still have in me; I hope there are another four or five. – Haruki Murakami
Writing is fun – at least mostly. I write for four hours every day. After that I go running. As a rule, 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). That’s easy to manage. – Haruki Murakami
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. – Haruki Murakami
I could have been a cult writer if I’d kept writing surrealistic novels. But I wanted to break into the mainstream, so I had to prove that I could write a realistic book. – Haruki Murakami
I think history is collective memories. In writing, I’m using my own memory, and I’m using my collective memory. – Haruki Murakami
Every writer has his writing technique – what he can and can’t do to describe something like war or history. I’m not good at writing about those things, but I try because I feel it is necessary to write that kind of thing. – Haruki Murakami
In Japan they prefer the realistic style. They like answers and conclusions, but my stories have none. I want to leave them wide open to every possibility. I think my readers understand that openness. – Haruki Murakami
I am 55 years old now. It takes three years to write one book. I don’t know how many books I will be able to write before I die. It is like a countdown. So with each book I am praying – please let me live until I am finished. – Haruki Murakami
Most near-future fictions are boring. It’s always dark and always raining, and people are so unhappy. – Haruki Murakami
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. – Haruki Murakami
I’m not intelligent. I’m not arrogant. I’m just like the people who read my books. I used to have a jazz club, and I made the cocktails and I made the sandwiches. I didn’t want to become a writer – it just happened. – Haruki Murakami
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. – Haruki Murakami
My father belongs to the generation that fought the war in the 1940s. When I was a kid my father told me stories – not so many, but it meant a lot to me. I wanted to know what happened then, to my father’s generation. It’s a kind of inheritance, the memory of it. – Haruki Murakami
As a novelist, you could say that I am dreaming while I am awake, and every day I can continue with yesterday’s dream. Because it is a dream, there are so many contradictions and I have to adjust them to make the story work. But, in principle, the original dream does not change. – Haruki Murakami
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. – Haruki Murakami
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. – Haruki Murakami
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. – Haruki Murakami
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. – Haruki Murakami
Everything passes. Nobody gets anything for keeps. And that’s how we’ve got to live. – Haruki Murakami
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. – Haruki Murakami
I was enjoying myself writing, because I don’t know what’s going to happen when I take a ride around that corner. You don’t know at all what you’re going to find there. That can be thrilling when you read a book, especially when you’re a kid and you’re reading stories. – Haruki Murakami
If you want to talk about something new, you have to make up a new kind of language. – Haruki Murakami
I didn’t read so much Japanese literature. Because my father was a teacher of Japanese literature, I just wanted to do something else. – Haruki Murakami
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. – Haruki Murakami
It’s physical. If you keep on writing for three years, every day, you should be strong. Of course you have to be strong mentally, also. But in the first place you have to be strong physically. That is a very important thing. Physically and mentally you have to be strong. – Haruki Murakami
When I start to write, I don’t have any plan at all. I just wait for the story to come. – Haruki Murakami
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. – Haruki Murakami
