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Haruki Murakami Quotes about Running - Page 2

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Most of what I know about writing I've learned through running every day.

Most of what I know about writing I've learned through running every day.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Writing, I've Learned
Haruki Murakami (2011). “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running”, p.81, Random House

Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Live Life, Endurance
"What I Talk About When I Talk About Running". Book by Haruki Murakami, October 15, 2007.

I get up early in the morning, 4 o'clock, and I sit at my desk and what I do is just dream. After three or four hours, that's enough. In the afternoon, I run.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Dream, Morning
"What Haruki Murakami talks about". Interview with Heidi Benson, www.sfgate.com. October 26, 2008.

For me, running is both exercise and a metaphor. Running day after day, piling up the races, bit by bit I raise the bar, and by clearing each level I elevate myself. At least that’s why I’ve put in the effort day after day: to raise my own level. I’m no great runner, by any means. I’m at an ordinary – or perhaps more like mediocre – level. But that’s not the point. The point is whether or not I improved over yesterday. In long-distance running the only opponent you have to beat is yourself, the way you used to be.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Distance, Mean
FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Jun 03, 2015

I've been running a full marathon every year for more than 20 years, and my record is getting worse. Getting older, getting worse. It's natural.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Years, Getting Older
"Marathon man". Interview with Richard Williams, www.theguardian.com. May 16, 2003.

These days I just can't seem to say what I mean [...]. I just can't. Every time I try to say something, it misses the point. Either that or I end up saying the opposite of what I mean. The more I try to get it right the more mixed up it gets. Sometimes I can't even remember what I was trying to say in the first place. It's like my body's split in two and one of me is chasing the other me around a big pillar. We're running circles around it. The other me has the right words, but I can never catch her.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Mean, Opposites
FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Dec 26, 2013

I don't really know if it's the right thing to do, making new life. Kids grow up, generations take their place. What does it all come to? More hills bulldozed and more ocean fronts filled in? Faster cars and more cats run over? Who needs it?

Haruki Murakami
Running, Growing Up, Ocean
"A Wild Sheep Chase". Book by Haruki Murakami, 1982.

Not that running away's going to solve everything. I don't want to rain on your parade or anything, but I wouldn't count on escaping this place if I were you. No matter how far you run. Distance might not solve anything.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Distance, Rain
FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Mar 21, 2016

In ancient times, people weren't just male or female, but one of three types: male/male, male/female, female/female. In other words, each person was made out of the components of two people. Everyone was happy with this arrangement and never really gave it much a thought. But then God took a knife and cut everybody in half, right down the middle. So after that the world was divided just into male and female, the upshot being that people spend their time running around trying to locate their missing other half.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Cutting, Knives
"Kafka on the Shore". Book by Haruki Murakami. Chapter Five, "Oshima", 2002.

I've always done whatever I felt like doing in life. People may try to stop me, and convince me I'm wrong, but I won't change.

Haruki Murakami
Running, People, Trying
"What I Talk About When I Talk About Running". Book by Haruki Murakam, October 15, 2007.

I'm in no position to hand down any advice," he said, "but there's a rule I follow when I don't know what to do." "A rule?" "If you have to choose between something that has form and something that doesn't, go for the one without form. That's my rule. Whenever I run into a wall I follow that rule, and it always works out. Even if it's hard going at the time.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Wall, Hands

If I used being busy as an excuse not to run, I'd never run again. I have only a few reasons to keep on running, and a truckload of them to quit.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Quitting, Busy

Writing is fun - at least mostly. I write for four hours every day. After that I go running. As a rule, 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). That's easy to manage.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Fun, Writing

I didn't start running because somebody asked me to become a runner. Just like I didn't become a novelist because someone asked me to. One day, out of the blue, I wanted to write a novel. And one day, out of the blue, I started to run-simply because I wanted to. I've always done whatever I felt like doing in life. People may try to stop me, and convince me I'm wrong, but I won't change.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Writing, Blue
FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Aug 21, 2015

By then running had entered the realm of the metaphysical. First there came the action of running, and accompanying it there was this entity known as me. I run; therefore I am.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Firsts, Action

I just wanted to write something about running, but I realized that to write about my running is to write about my writing. It's a parallel thing in me.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Writing, Wanted
"What Haruki Murakami talks about". Interview with Heidi Benson, www.sfgate.com. October 26, 2008.

I try not to think about anything special while running. As a matter of fact, I usually run with my mind empty. However, when I run empty-minded, something naturally and abruptly crawls in sometime. That might become an idea that can help me with my writing.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Writing, Thinking

When I'm running I don't have to talk to anybody and don't have to listen to anybody. This is a part of my day I can't do without.

Haruki Murakami
Running, I Can
"What I talk about when I talk about running". Memoir by Haruki Murakami, October 15, 2007.

Everybody's born with some different thing at the core of their existence. And that thing, whatever it is, becomes like a heat source that runs each person from the inside. I have one too, of course. Like everybody else. But sometimes it gets out of hand. It swells or shrinks inside me, and it shakes me up. What I'd really like to do is find a way to communicate that feeling to another person.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Hands, Feelings
FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Mar 02, 2017

Before I became a writer, I was running a jazz bar in the center of Tokyo, which means that I worked in filthy air all the time late into the night. I was very excited when I started making a living out of my writing, and I decided, 'I will live in nothing but an absolutely healthy way.'

Haruki Murakami
Running, Mean, Writing

Even if there were two of me, I still couldn't do all that has to be done. No matter what, though, I keep up my running. Running every day is a kind of lifeline for me, so I'm not going to lay off or quit just because I'm busy. If I used being busy as an excuse not to run, I'd never run again. I have only a few reasons to keep on running, and a truckload of them to quit. All I can do is keep those few reasons nicely polished.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Two Of Me, Done

At any rate, that’s how I started running. Thirty three—that’s how old I was then. Still young enough, though no longer a young man. The age that Jesus Christ died. The age that Scott Fitzgerald started to go downhill. That age may be a kind of crossroads in life. That was the age when I began my life as a runner, and it was my belated, but real, starting point as a novelist.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Jesus, Real
Haruki Murakami (2011). “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running”, p.47, Random House

I began running on an everyday basis after I became a writer. As being a writer requires sitting at a desk for hours a day, without getting some exercise you'd quickly get out of shape and gain weight, I figured.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Exercise, Everyday

But I didn't walk a single step. I stopped a lot to stretch, but I never walked. I didn't come here to walk. I came to run. That's the reason-the only reason-I flew all the way to the northern tip of Japan. No matter how slow I might run, I wasn't about to walk. That was the rule.

Haruki Murakami
Running, Japan, Might

I've run the Boston Marathon 6 times before. I think the best aspects of the marathon are the beautiful changes of the scenery along the route and the warmth of the people's support. I feel happier every time I enter this marathon.

Haruki Murakami
Beautiful, Running, Thinking

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