#hi

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. ↗

— Haruki Murakami

#culture #games #high #i #including

A fortunate author can write maybe twelve novels in his lifetime. ↗

— Haruki Murakami

#fortunate #his #lifetime #maybe #novels

I just wanted to write something about running, but I realized that to write about my running is to write about my writing. It's a parallel thing in me. ↗

— Haruki Murakami

#i #just #me #parallel #realized

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

#am #awake #because #change #continue

Before I became a writer, I was running a jazz bar in the center of Tokyo, which means that I worked in filthy air all the time late into the night. I was very excited when I started making a living out of my writing, and I decided, 'I will live in nothing but an absolutely healthy way.' ↗

— Haruki Murakami

#air #bar #became #before #center

Concentration is one of the happiest things in my life. ↗

— Haruki Murakami

#happiest #life #my life #things

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. ↗

— Haruki Murakami

#because #cats #confidence #could #even

I am worrying about my country. I feel I have a responsibility as a novelist to do something. ↗

— Haruki Murakami

#am #country #feel #i #i am

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

#else #father #i #japanese #just

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. ↗

— Haruki Murakami

#be humble #became #countries #enjoy #his way