25 quotes from the life and work of Haruki Murakami

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

About inspiration and wealth, about food and bad habits, about running and The Brothers Karamazov.

Murakami's books have been translated into 50 languages and are bestsellers around the world. It is not surprising, because they reflect numerous global trends, so that the work of the writer is close to a huge number of people. At the same time, Haruki Murakami is not just a significant writer, but also a very extraordinary personality. His reflections on various things are worth getting to know.

Quotes from books

About people and loneliness

1. “A person must at least once in his life be in the wilderness in order to physically experience loneliness, even if he suffocates from boredom. To feel what it is like to depend exclusively on yourself, and in the end to know your essence and gain strength, previously unknown."

"My favorite sputnik".

2. “Be whatever you want: gay, lesbian, normal, like most people, a feminist, a fascist pig, a communist, a Hare Krishna. Under any banner, please … It doesn't concern me at all. Who I hate is these hollow people. I can’t stand it when these fools flicker before my eyes.”

"Kafka on the Beach".

About music

3. "Playing music is almost like flying through the sky."

"After Darkness".

About running

4. “Runners are often laughed at, they say, these are ready for a lot, just to live longer, but I think that most people run for a different reason. It is important for them not to prolong their life, but to improve its quality”.

"What am I talking about when I talk about running."

About business and choosing a profession

5. “A profession should initially be an act of love. And by no means a marriage of convenience."

"Tokyo Legends".

6. “I have a rule: it is stupid to spend more on rags than necessary. Jeans and a sweater are usually enough. But in business I have a little philosophy: the manager should dress the way he would like to see the clients of his establishment. So both the visitors and the staff seem to be in a better mood, a kind of internal tension arises. That is why I always come to my bars in an expensive suit and always with a tie."

"South of the border, west of the sun."

About the laws of life

7. “So, everything in the world is complicated and at the same time very simple. This is the fundamental law that rules the world, he said. - You should always remember this. Things that seem complicated and are in fact are very simple in their essence, if you understand what motives are behind them. It all depends on what you are trying to achieve. The motive is, so to speak, the source of desire. It is important to find this source."

The Clockwork Bird Chronicle.

About food and sex

8. “For me in life, food is more important than sex. And sex is like a good dessert. When it is there - fine, no - it's not scary, you can do without it. And besides that there is something to do."

"Wonderland without Brakes and the End of the World."

9. “It's great when the food is delicious. It makes you feel alive."

Norwegian Forest.

Quotes from interviews

About childhood

10. “As a child, I loved three things. I loved reading. I loved music. I loved cats. And even though I was just a child, I could be happy because I knew I loved. And these three attachments have not changed since my childhood … So much for confidence. If you don't know what you love, you have failed."

11. “I have had many cats, but none have been filled with compassion. They were as selfish as they could."

About wealth

12. “If you’re more or less rich, the best thing about it is that you don’t have to think about money. The best you can buy is freedom, time. I don't know how much I earn. Generally. I don't know how much taxes I pay. I don't want to think about taxes. I have an accountant and my wife takes care of all this. They don't load me with this. I just work."

About reality

13. “I'm not religious. I only believe in imagination. And that there is not only this reality. The real world and that other, unreal world exist simultaneously. They are both very closely related and interdependent. Sometimes it happens that they mix. And if I really want it, if I concentrate enough, I can go to the other side and come back."

About creative inspiration

14. “When I write, I wake up early in the morning and turn on the vinyl record. Not very loud. After 10 or 15 minutes, I forget about the music and just concentrate on what I'm writing."

15. “You can believe me - I am the most ordinary person. I am a good husband, I do not raise my voice to anyone, I never lose my temper. But I don't take any creative ideas from my daily life. When I run, cook or lie on the beach, not a single thought comes to my mind."

16. “I live to the drumbeat of everyday things: I wash, cook, iron. I like to do all this, it is great to free my head from thoughts. Only when I am empty am I capable of producing something."

17. “I don't think of myself as an artist. I'm just a guy who can write. Yes.

18. “Sometimes I feel like a storyteller since prehistoric times. I can imagine how people are sitting in a cave, they are trapped there, and it is raining outside. But I am also there with them and tell them some stories."

About books and characters

19. “I like to put things in books that have nothing to do with the rest. If the work contains only what is “relevant”, it will become cramped and stuffy there. And if you introduce one by one what seems to be extraneous, you get the impression of a breath of fresh wind."

20. “I am not able to make the reader think the way I might like. I simply have no right to believe that the reader should perceive my book in any way. We are at the same level, at the same, so to speak, height. Due to the fact that I am a writer, I cannot perceive the text "better" than the reader. If you see the text in your own way, then this is your personal relationship with the text, and I have nothing to object to this."

21. “My characters relate to me only indirectly. They appear in the narrative and then live on their own. What I want to say is that the narrative, the world, must be treated neutrally. If, however, personal motives become present - be it a wife or children - the course of the presentation will stall. Therefore, you should be neutral, look at everything from an impartial position, so that, if possible, there is no taste of your own life. I choose this position for myself when I write."

22. “My goal is The Brothers Karamazov. To write something like this is the peak, the top. I read The Karamazovs at the age of 14-15 and have re-read them four times since then. It was perfect every time. In my mind, this is an ideal piece. From 14 to 20 I read only Russian literature. The closest were, of course, the things of Dostoevsky. The Demons is a very powerful piece, but the Karamazovs are unsurpassed."

23. “The opinion that my prose is 'not Japanese' seems to me to be very superficial. I consider myself a Japanese writer myself. Yes, at first I wanted to become an “international” writer, but over time I realized that I am a Japanese writer, and I cannot be anything else. But even at the beginning of this journey, I did not want to just indiscriminately copy Western styles and rules. I wanted to change Japanese literature from the inside, not the outside. And he invented his own rules for this."

About bad habits and exercise

24. “I don't smoke anymore, I quit for a long time. When I wrote "The Sheep Hunt" I was still smoking. Then he quit, and in subsequent books there were much fewer smokers. As for the booze, whatever. But I do not accept strong, because from it I immediately fall asleep. In general, every day I go to bed at 9-10 hours and before going to bed I definitely drink a little."

25. “I'm not really a fan of exercise. And I don't do sports to promote health. Rather, we are talking about a kind of metaphysical mechanism. In this way I want to free myself from the body."