If writing novels is like planting a forest, then writing short stories is more like planting a garden. — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
There weren't any curtains in the windows, and the books that didn't fit into the bookshelf lay piled on the floor like… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
The others in the dorm thought I wanted to be a writer, because I was always alone with a book, but I… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
“Novelists are a special breed. They cannot genuinely trust anything they have not seen with their own eyes or touched with their… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
Have books ‘happened’ to you? Unless your answer to that question is ‘yes,’ I’m unsure how to talk to you — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
If I choose to write about sheep, it's just because I happened to write about sheep. There is no deep significance. — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
I write my novels personally, desperately and non-negligently. When I write my novels, I think about my novels only, and never do… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
“Writing things was important, wasn’t it?” Nakata asked. “Yes, it was. The process of writing was important. Even though the finished product… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
Like a Chinese box, the world of the novel contained smaller worlds, and inside those were yet smaller worlds. Together, these worlds… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
I have no idea! I have been writing for 35 years and from the beginning up to now the situation's almost the… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
“It's not that I don't believe in contemporary literature," he added, "but I don't want to waste valuable time reading any book… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
When I open them, most of the books have the smell of an earlier time leaking out between the pages - a… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
“To be a Russian writer at the end of the nineteenth century must have meant bearing an inescapably bitter fate. The more… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
“When you introduce things that most readers have never seen before into a piece of fiction, you have to describe them with… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
When a writer develops a story, he is confronted with a poison that is inside him. If you don't have that poison,… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
Whenever I write a novel, I have a strong sense that I am doing something I was unable to do before. With… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
“Once I began a book, I couldn’t put it down. It was like an addiction; I read while I ate, on the… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
“He was a far more voracious reader than me, but he made it a rule to never touch a book by any… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
“Your readers have seen a sky with one moon in it any number of times, right? But I doubt they've seen a… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
“The bar was meant to look like a place where Hemingway might have hung out in the Bahamas. A stuffed swordfish hung… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
“My head is like some ridiculous barn packed full of stuff I want to write about,” she said. “Images, scenes, snatches of… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
“Most of what I know about writing I’ve learned through running every day. These are practical, physical lessons. How much can I… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
“If I’m asked what the next most important quality is for a novelist, that’s easy too: focus—the ability to concentrate all your… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
If writing novels is like planting a forest, then writing short stories is more like planting a garden. The two processes complement… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
My priority is my books, at least at this point. What I have to do is write the narrative of this time. — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
“If writers only wrote about things everybody knew, what the hell would be the point of writing?” — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
I could have been a cult writer if I'd kept writing surrealistic novels. But I wanted to break into the mainstream, so… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
“I had been given a wonderful opportunity to be a novelist — a chance you just don't get every day.” — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
You could be anybody when you're writing. That's the reason that I'm writing: to be anybody. You can put your feet in… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
To be able to talk to your heart’s content about a book you like with someone who feels the same way about… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
I'm not a fast reader. I like to linger over each sentence, enjoying the style. If I don't enjoy the writing, I… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
I never plan. I never know what the next page is going to be… But that's the fun of writing a novel… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
Mere humans who root through their refrigerators at three o'clock in the morning can only produce writing that matches what they do.… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
Writers have to keep on writing if they want to mature, like caterpillars endlessly chewing on leaves. — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
I closed my own jazz bar so I could be a man who can write novels as I like. I was pleased… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
What I'd like to be is a unique writer who's different from everybody else. I want to be a writer who tells… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
Writing talent is similar to the art of chatting up a girl. You can improve to a certain degree through practice, but… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
“If u only read the books that everyone's reading, you can think what everyone else is thinking.” — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
“To be able to talk to your heart's content about a book you like with someone is one of the greatest joys… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
I always feel like I'm struggling to become someone else. Like I'm trying to find a new place, grab hold of a new life,… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share
If writing novels is like planting a forest, then writing short stories is more like planting a garden. — Haruki Murakami Copy Share
“The sad truth is that what I could recall in five seconds all too soon needed ten, then thirty, thena full minute...” — Haruki Murakami Copy Share
“Intelligent teenage girls were often instinctively theatrical, purposely eccentric, mouthing highly suggestive words to confuse people.” — Haruki Murakami Copy Share
Memory is like fiction; or else it's fiction that's like memory. This really came home to me once I started writing fiction, that memory… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share
The most dangerous creature here would have to be me. So maybe I'm just scared of my own shadow. — Haruki Murakami Copy Share
If you listen to the radio for a whole hour there's maybe one decent song. The rest is mass-produced garbage — Haruki Murakami Copy Share
“that one of our problems was our inability to recognize and accept our own deformities” — Haruki Murakami Copy Share
“When I look back at myself at age twenty, what I remember most is being alone and lonely. I had no girlfriend to warm… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share
“There's not a branch of publishing or broadcasting that doesn't depend in some way on advertising. It'd be like an aquarium without water. Why,… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share
“One by one, I'll face the tasks before me and complete them as best I can. Focusing on each stride forward, but at the… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share
“Eleven o'clock had come and gone. I had to find a way to bring this conversation to a successful conclusion and get out of… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share
“Some people get a kick out of reading railway timetables and that's all they do all day. Some people make huge model boats out… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share
“When the time comes, everybody’s got to end up where they belong. Only me, I didn’t have a place to call my own. It’s… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share
“You let something out of the bag before yourself knew what it was all about” — Haruki Murakami Copy Share
