Writing Quotes by Haruki Murakami

“writing was like breathing.”

— Haruki Murakami

“Writing a novel is like having a dream.”

— Haruki Murakami

I'll write to you. A super-long letter, like in an old-fashioned novel

— Haruki Murakami

It was as if I were writing letters to hold together the pieces of my crumbling life.

— Haruki Murakami

It's just like sex; when [a book is] finished, it's finished.

— Haruki Murakami

“It just happens to be the way that I'm made. I have to write things down to feel I fully comprehend them.”

— Haruki Murakami

I'm a writer, not a professional runner. It's fun and it helps me write. I need powerful concentration.

— Haruki Murakami

I always write my novels with music (I don't listened to the music seriously.) Music seems to encourage me.

— Haruki Murakami

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

— 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

“I find writing novels a challenge, writing stories a joy. If writing novels is like planting a forest, then writing short stories…

— Haruki Murakami

Perhaps I'm just too painstaking a type of person, but I can't grasp much of anything without putting down my thoughts in…

— Haruki Murakami

For me, writing a novel is like having a dream. Writing a novel lets me intentionally dream while I'm still awake. I…

— Haruki Murakami

You like to write. It's the single most important quality for someone who wants to be a writer. But not in itself…

— Haruki Murakami

Good style happens in one of two ways: the writer either has an inborn talent or is willing to work herself to…

— Haruki Murakami

Myths are the prototype for all stories. When we write a story on our own it can't help but link up with…

— Haruki Murakami

Which is why I am writing this book. To think. To understand. It just happens to be the way I'm made. I…

— Haruki Murakami

I want to write about people who dream and wait for the night to end, who long for the light so they…

— Haruki Murakami

“Writing novels is much the same. You gather up bones and make your gate, but no matter how wonderful the gate might…

— Haruki Murakami

Most people dream a dream when they are asleep. But to be a writer, you have to dream while you are awake,…

— Haruki Murakami

Sometimes I find it too hot to run, and sometimes too cold. Or too cloudy. But I still go running. I know…

— Haruki Murakami

I want to write stories that are different from the ones I've written so far, Junpei thought: I want to write about…

— 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…

— Haruki Murakami

“Tengo did not know for certain whether he wanted to be a professional novelist, nor was he sure he had the talent…

— Haruki Murakami

It's true that at the time I was fond of Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan, and it was from them that I…

— Haruki Murakami

Before I became a writer, I was running a jazz bar in the center of Tokyo, which means that I worked in…

— Haruki Murakami

“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

“Our lives are like a complex musical score. Filled with all sorts of cryptic writing, sixteenth and thirty-second notes and other strange…

— Haruki Murakami

“I write weird stories. I don't know why I like weirdness so much. Myself, I'm a very realistic person. I don't trust…

— Haruki Murakami

“Writing, to me, is the meaning of life. My life became something special because of writing. My desk is for me what…

— Haruki Murakami

“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

“My head is like some ridiculous barn packed full of stuff I want to write about,” she said. “Images, scenes, snatches of…

— Haruki Murakami

“Now a narrative is a story, not logic, nor ethics, nor philosophy. It is a dream you keep having, whether you realize…

— Haruki Murakami

“I believe that I have not been fair to you and that, as a result, I must have led you around in…

— Haruki Murakami

“If writers only wrote about things everybody knew, what the hell would be the point of writing?”

— Haruki Murakami

My priority is my books, at least at this point. What I have to do is write the narrative of this time.

— Haruki Murakami

If I choose to write about sheep, it's just because I happened to write about sheep. There is no deep significance.

— Haruki Murakami

“I realize that all I can place in the imperfect vessel of writing are imperfect memories and imperfect thoughts.”

— Haruki Murakami

In my younger days, I was trying to write sophisticated prose and fantastic stories.

— Haruki Murakami

If writing novels is like planting a forest, then writing short stories is more like planting a garden.

— Haruki Murakami