“The key component is not the quality of the materials—what’s needed is magic. If that magic is present, the most basic daily matters and the plainest language can be turned into a device of surprising sophistication.
Their only recourse is to throw open their garage doors, drag out whatever they have stored away to that point— even if it looks like no more than a pile of useless junk—and slave away until the magic takes hold.
Refusing to think of oneself as an artist removes a lot of pressure.
There’s something more important deeper down in running. But it’s not at all clear to me what that something is, and if I don’t understand it myself, then I can’t explain it to others.
I felt very strongly that paying close attention to what the body is feeling is, fundamentally, a critical process for someone involved in creative work.
Your mind has to be as tough as possible, and in order to maintain that mental toughness over the long term, it’s essential to increase and sustain the receptacle that is physical strength.
All creative activity is, to some extent, done partly with the intention to rectify or fix yourself.”
Haruki Murakami, Novelist As A Vocation (2022)
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