Haruki Murakami: Daily Routine

For the Japanese author, creativity comes from routine: early starts, deep focus, and long-distance running.

While author Haruki Murakami is internationally renowned for works such as A Wild Sheep Chase (1982) and Norwegian Wood (1987), he is also well-known for one other thing, being a “running novelist” as dubbed by The New Yorker in a 2008 profile piece.

From the Japanese writer’s point of view, “writing a long novel is like survival training. Physical strength is as necessary as artistic sensitivity,” spending his days running and swimming to build up his endurance, as well as competing in marathons and triathlons.