Haruki Murakami Quotes
I could have been a cult writer if I'd kept writing surrealistic novels. But I wanted to break into the mainstream, so I had to prove that I could write a realistic book.
Quotes to Explore
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What other grown-up gets told how to do their job so often as a writer?
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So many Indian novels, quite unfairly, do not get the prominence they should because they have been written in a language other than English.
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I get intrigued by a first lin and I write to find out why it means something to me. You make discoveries just the way the reader does, so you're simultaneously the writer and the reader.
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I love writing journalism because it's all over in two hours and comes straight off the top of the head. Writing novels is soooooo much harder. It's the hardest thing I've ever done.
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Wherever I am, I take books, not novels.
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I was a writer for hire. I wrote to pay the bills.
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Well I could have been just a writer. I had been a hair dresser. I could have stuck with that.
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I also read modern novels - I have just had to read 60 as I am one of the judges for the Orange Fiction Prize.
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If a writer doesn't generate hostility, he is dead.
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I was just as voracious a writer as I was a reader.
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With my songs I tried to prove that there is love.
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There are three things that make a person a writer: inspiration, perspiration and desperation.
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I'm not a great writer.
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I am the kind of writer that people think other people are reading.
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When somebody asks what I do, I guess I say 'writer' first.
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I haven't given any thought to collaborating with my sisters. It would be great fun. My daughter Molly is a wonderful writer - someday I'd love to collaborate with her.
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My favorite short-story writer is John Cheever.
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Lizzy Weiss is such a great writer, and she really writes for the performances.
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Medicine involves dealing with people who are going through changes and cycles, often people trapped in bodies that are going out from under them. Spending time with them lets you think their way, gives you insights as a writer.
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I know that if I'd had to go and take an exam for acting, I wouldn't have got anywhere. You don't take exams for acting, you take your courage.
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You don't worry about being liked. You have to be yourself.
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Instead of stubbornly attempting to use surrealism for purposes of subversion, it is necessary to try to make of surrealism something as solid, complete and classic as the works of museums.
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I believe the time will come when the whole definition of pop music will change. It will get to the point where a song will not be a good song until it has a high level of creativity in writing and performance. In other words, in order to be popular, songs will have to meet these high standards.
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I could have been a cult writer if I'd kept writing surrealistic novels. But I wanted to break into the mainstream, so I had to prove that I could write a realistic book.
