Haruki Murakami Quotes

Most people have their best ideas when they take their minds away from problems they're trying to solve.

I guess I started running when I was about 18 and... I feel like it assists my creativity a bit because it completely just flushes everything out.

I'm a long distance runner, and I get my best ideas when I'm out running. It also helps that I can't write it down immediately - if you hold onto an idea, other things will stick on it.

I have a notebook with me all the time, and I begin scribbling a few words. When things are going well, the walk does not get anywhere; I finally just stop and write.

Writing is a very focused form of meditation. Just as good as sitting in a lotus position.

Some of the best writing I've done, whether I'm shooting a story or thinking of a script, I write it in my head as I'm running. Running literally jogs my brain.

I write in my study, where I also have my prayer altar. I believe that keeps me focused and gives me positive energy and reminds me that I'm merely the instrument of greater creative forces.

Meditation has been a loyal friend to me. It has helped me write my books.

If you have too many quotes from other people in your head, you can't create. You have to keep your head empty. That's why I am constantly enjoying the sky, the park, the walk.

I've started running three or four times a week, which prompts millions of sketch ideas.

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.

Music is a job, but I figured out ways to get my mind into a place where I could be creative. I actually discovered meditation. It enabled me to clear my mind of all the drama and focus on the music.

As soon as I finish meditating, I get a beautiful feeling of expanded consciousness. When I'm in this headspace I can make so much progress in my writing.

Whenever an answer, a solution, or a creative idea is needed, stop thinking for a moment by focusing attention on your inner energy field. ... When you resume thinking, it will be fresh and creative.

Sometimes it's better to just be quiet, to not think of anything at all. Out of silence comes the greatest creativity.

I try to do a lot of yoga and meditation. I think now it's creating things in times of waiting.

It is on these (20min) walks that my best ideas come to me. It is while walking that difficult clarity emerges. It is while walking that I experience a sense of well-being and connection, and it is in walking that I live most prayerfully.

As soon as coffee is in your stomach, there is a general commotion. Ideas begin to move…similes arise, the paper is covered. Coffee is your ally and writing ceases to be a struggle.

The spirit of the music and the energy that kicks back from the fans inspires me. To stay centered amidst the chaos I meditate. I first meditated at age 17 and have continued off and on through the years.

Think, the successful idea is always in your mind. Think it out.

Every man whose business it is to think knows that he must for part of the day create about himself a pool of silence.

Wonderful things happen when your brain is empty.

If you write, good ideas must come welling up into you so that you have something to write. If good ideas do not come at once, or for a long time, do not be troubled at all. Wait for them. Put down little ideas no matter how insignificant they are. But do not feel, any more, guilty about idleness and solitude.

Fire is a good companion for the mind.

Writing at least is a silent meditation even though you’re going a hundred miles an hour.