Haruki Murakami Quotes

I try to stay focused on my creativity.

I write my books in my head, and not in a specific study with a view. The view is from my inner eyes.

People seem to have trouble with the imagination. They can't believe that you can just pull things out of your brain like that.

You have something that exists in your head, and getting that abstract thought from your head into something that actually exists is a difficult process.

My creative workday starts with strong breakfast tea and a few minutes of journaling, both of which help me get my head in the story. So much of story-building for me involves immersing myself in the character and situation I'll be working on, just the way an actor does when playing a role.

When you are in a room and your job is to write jokes 10 hours a day, your mind starts going to strange places.

It's really about living in your head... just looking out at the world, then going back into your head and tossing around a lot of ideas and coming out with something interesting to say.

When you read books, you kind of create that whole world in your mind, and you go on a journey with the author of that book. I think that's really a good thing.

If you're using your imagination, you tend to look into the past for ideas.

You need to be imagining all the time, imagining yourself outside the walls of your own skull.

It's fun to try and picture what exactly is in your head and translate it onto the screen. How you can take something that lives in my mind and bring it to life - but that part is fun.

Writing is essentially an internal process.

If I have a talent, it lies in the creative process.

I like to be in locations that I kind of feel are very creative, that stimulate me in a creative process.

I enjoyed working with Vikram Kumar, as he is an amazing director who is full of ideas, and he tells me that he has different compartments in his brain in which he places different story ideas and works on them simultaneously.

I never, ever drink while writing. Never have from the start, and I'm happy that I never have to. A lot of my stuff is plot-driven and mathematical, and I think you need a clean and sober mind to pin down the logistics of that.

I only think in live action.

One rule of invention: before you can invent it, you have to imagine it.

When I make a film, I don't watch a lot of other films. I read a lot; I try to read poems, things that can liberate my human condition, that make me go away... I spend a lot of the time doing nothing, just concentrating on the subject. Sometimes I'll sit in my chair for two or three hours without doing anything.

Writing, for me at least, takes a lot of concentrated work and effort. It takes dedication and the willingness to do the work even when that feeling of inspiration isn't there at all.

I write, having seen what's happening already in my head. I see it as a movie, and I'm just writing down what's happening in front of me.

I don't use tools to create things, but I use them to realize things.

I let the images crowd my mind before I start writing a script.

I very rarely write anything before what I see what I'm writing for.

I love the creative process - brainstorming and coming up with campaigns.