Sometimes I meet a person ing experiences t I can e lots of books about t; I te a fe mean t Americans say suc t many Japanese living in America often do. t be probably true, because its quite co live ary, and t ered various kinds of exciting ry. Its quite natural t trong ell tory to someone else.
Of course, I dont knoo e t I can only say ter all; despite ter e a number of novels so far, Ive almost never ;truly excitingquot; incidents in my private life. No doubt I miging as a person living more ting a strange and mysterious person or being greatly siny. Some memory, I cant tell you is till makes me so sore. tement. Nevert also anyone e a stranger to ing novels and asked if I can declare to people t quot;Ive got so mucock of interesting topics for my ing, quot; to tion ;No.quot; Definitely quot;No.quot; I could do is just confess ly t quot;My life eresting in its not interesting enougo e a novel about it.quot;
For all tumble upon people ory telling since a boy, and I often ask to tell tory as a subject for my novel, but I just feel like listening to tales exist; some of tunning, moving, ily laugive is sometimes so encing as to make me forget to go to bed. It is true t quot;Fact is stranger tion. quot; But it is not alrue t tement, can e a novel as stimulating as be a er like Jack London (an American novelist 1878-1916) eresting books from iful, extraordinary experiences, but judging from my knoional.
te opinion, people are inclined to be captured by tually ing tress o otries, ronger is tention to quot;e about a particular subject in a particular ; t becomes to start ing and to express myself. tress someation one feels o anot ically in o narrate my feeling of t fail incessantly to describe o betray me.
to trary, te t sometiful in a trivial incident from t from t of ote to a different form and tell ot tanding muco novelists.
Any. I can understand t quot;If I e my books based on my personal experiences, my readers er t 20 pages.quot; In my case, less t is generally believed t ers create tance, ances around me suddenly started to become restless and nervous. to keep a distance from me tionsil t time. At first I couldnt make out er talking to ticed to me for fear t I mig book. eve been getting along I ention to e such kind of novels.
Since I came to tates, Ive visited lots of universities and talked udents. Ive talked publicly before a large audience, too. But I feel more comfortable yle. Sometimes after class, all of us to a pub and enjoyed an open and frank conversation over a glass of beer. In sucmospudents. Students, titude in teac relaxed and recover their eyes.
tudents interested in Japanese Literature or Japanese, but for many of t time in to meet a novelist. to knoic about a novelist, for instance, ure a er is, e a novel too. t-oriented students are keenly interested to kno ing a novel or become a novelist. Most typical questions asked by them are as follows:
1. did you to e in your university days?
2. novel?
3. do you t essential for ing novels?
From my standpoint as a private er, I find it almost impossible to expand my case into ters and to teac quot;Novelists are suc; or quot;to e a novelquot; or quot;You can become a er in t; I also find it meaningless to suggest to t;correctquot; t. So I se example, saying t quot;In my case I am like t; Besides, tively quot;colorfulquot; start-up example to tract t.
In t;concrete and colorfulquot; o tudents , and I o notice t it self t made me a er. Sometimes I am deeply impressed by t t I could become a er.
udent, I ainly ting someted to e film scenarios. Scenarios first, and t interested in films. t is er ty, but I gave up ing scenarios didnt fit me. I didnt est idea of o e or o e in terial nor any to e about. Sucart ing a script ( or anyt fact. But I liked to read film scripts any to t everyday, if not attending classes, and devoured all ts in t and in t tudent days noo younger people, o e somet quot;you need not force yourself to e somet.quot; I though.
ted from aseda, got married, and started is opposite. I married, started ed from university.) Driven by totally forgot my e someto clear off my debts, I o ill late at nig;a for seven years. As my bar served t;stuffed cabbagequot; , for instance, I o cut a full bag of onions into tiny pieces every morning. Still noo cut plenty of onions in a s time even sears. My omatically and sly move as if to do it.
quot;Do you kno tears?quot; I ask my students sometimes.
quot;No,quot; they say.
quot;Finisting tears start dropping.quot; A big laughter occurs.
comes to topic like tudents eyes. t migly because tory in tly because t of vague anxiety about ture: quot; kind of life course am I going to follo; quot; kind of possibility can I find t; I can understand tability about t position and ture. Around ty, I able as t t;unstablequot; means. If a god appears o go back to ty again, I ;I appreciate your offer, but I am quite satisfied ; If you pardon me, I to say frankly quot;to ies.quot;
t ting a novel knocked on me. No it more. It ernoon in spring and I to see a baseball game bet Sfield bleacon a double, I made a sudden resolution t quot;Nos time for me to start ing a novel.quot; tarted to e a novel.
ion to my students, all of tunned face. quot;t means a someto you?quot; quot;I dont taste of beer, ts got togetimulated somet; I explain. quot;All I needed ime and to identify myself. It doesnt o be a special experience. It doesnt matter t t a series of ordinary experiences. But to be t are embedding tudent, I couldnt find out o e despite tcing someto discover ting, I guess.quot; quot;If you gone to tadium on t April afternoon, you be a er no;
quot;;
I really mean it; quot;; If I been in tadium t afternoon, I mig ing any novels. But as a matter of fact, I y outfield bleacadium on t spring afternoon - yes tadium y in tcon a beautiful double into left field, I came to e my first book quot;; It mig;extraordinaryquot; incident in my life.
quot;Mr. Murakami, do you t;
quot;I ; t is t;But I imagine somet exactly to anybody else. tance of revelation must sometime visit you ed to eac least, dont you t is sure to come?quot;
Anye a feitled quot;All I Really Need to Knoenquot; became a big bestseller ;All I need to kno; I acquired various kno t I attended, but frankly speaking, t ing a novel. I aining t tion is meaningless, but I rarely met a situation my scion quot;If you dont udied er ; s be rig still I cant understand s because after groted t quot;I sudied ; It is my ties t taugrut erally engaged in per day. I spent every day in my ties ely o pay my debts every mont t anytried. But as a result, t kind of . Labor teaco me and my quot;true university.quot;
For instance, managing a bar, I of customers every day, and not everybody necessarily likes my place, or more accurately, just a fe strange to say, you can manage to carry on your business if one or tomers out of ten really like your place and if to quot;drop by t; Sometimes you can ter result en really love your place rat, or nine customers merely feel t quot;it is not bad.quot; to me, it doesnt matter so long as one or tuitively understand to express. It became an invaluable lesson to me. it t migo live as a novelist and some malicious comments on my book migurbed my o temporary ers in Japan; ;Almost transparent Bluequot; in 1976 ed Akutagaers), quot;You are really great, mad by not being praised by all of ten critics.quot; But , on trary, impresses me because it certainly sounds like himself.
ting of myself - it isnt even ing of, Im not a person to t rato do so by actually moving my body. I am a person is because I used to make my living by making use of my body from morning till nig is everyt to me. ter of mine sometimes makes me feel out of place in quot;terature.quot; Partly t;out of placequot; migo go abroad and live a do my favorite jogging and swimming may he same origin.
About ing a novel, I noto quot;teac; to my students. quot;All you o do is live actually. If you really om of your to e someto express yourself to somebody else, time is sure to come e t t you cant e anytil t time you carefully continue to pile up your daily experiences one by one as if to lay bricks one after anot; I say, and tudent responds t quot;I can do it, too,quot; asks quot; sime doesnt come to me?quot; Some giggle. In sucance, any ation, I quote a vocal teac;Citizen Kanequot;; quot;Some people can sing, otquot;
ers novel, and I said to all t quot;My first book Ive ten recently ers,quot; none of tead, t I ill about t t Im called a novelist. In t from a novelist.
Auffed cabbage, no life and I t our life is very o explain, ing experiencesquot; or not.