The Underground Worlds of Haruki Murakami

I don’t research when I write novels, because imagination is my asset, my gift.

The other side is usually a dark place?

Murakami in The New YorkerRead fiction and essays by the author.

Not necessarily. I think it has more to do with curiosity. If there is a door and you can open it and enter that other place, you do it. It’s just curiosity. What’s inside? What’s over there? So that’s what I do every day. When I’m writing a nove... See more

one, criticizing someone is easy; two, creating something original is very hard; three, but somebody’s got to do it.

I respect the daily routine

My rule is to try something new every time

a novel is like a party. Anybody who wants to join in can join in, and those who wish to leave can do so whenever they want.” So, how do you invite people and things to this party? Or how do you get to a place when you’re writing where they can come uninvited?

a study of missed connections, of both the comedy and the tragedy triggered by our failures to understand one another.

subtle stylist and a self-willed Everyman

I have learned so many things from music about writing. I think there are three important elements: rhythm, harmony, and free improvisation. I learned these things from music, not from literature. And when I started to write, I tried to write as though I were playing music.

If you can write, you’re not fixed. You can be anybody else—you have that possibility.