Haruki Murakami Isn’t Afraid of the Dark

The author, who brought Japanese literature into the global mainstream, grapples with aging and his place in the world of letters.

When Haruki Murakami sits down to write, he has no idea what’s going to happen.

This seems like an astonishing admission for a seasoned novelist, particularly for a global literary icon who has written more than 40 books and sold tens of millions of copies in dozens of languages. But nearly half a century into his career, Murakami’s creative process remains a mystery, even to him.

“I don’t have any plan, I’m just writing, and while I’m writing, strange things happen very naturally, very automatically,” Murakami said during an interview in New York in December.

“Every time I write fiction, I go into another world — maybe you can call it subconsciousness — and anything can happen in that world,” he continued. “I see so many things there, then I come back to this real world and I write it down.”

Murakami doesn’t regard himself as a masterly prose stylist or a brilliant storyteller. In his telling, his one unique skill is his ability to travel between worlds and report back.

“I don’t think I’m an artist, exactly. I think I’m an ordinary guy,” he said. “I’m not a genius and I’m not that intelligent, but I can do that — I can go down to that world.”

Murakami and I met in a cavernous underground cocktail lounge in a Midtown Manhattan hotel, a setting that felt oddly appropriate, given his affinity for caves and tunnels, a recurring motif in his work. At 10 in the morning, the place was eerily empty. Geometric patterns of light played on the wall.

Dressed casually in a hooded sweatshirt and sneakers, Murakami seemed at home in the near darkness. He sat almost perfectly still — his gaze occasionally drifting upward, as if to capture a floating thought — and spoke slowly and deliberately, delivering answers mostly in English.

Murakami doesn’t enjoy public appearances, and doesn’t seem to relish speaking about himself or the meaning of his work. He avoids going on TV, though he’s been captured on video unwittingly. But in December, he reluctantly made two public speeches in New York in front of large, rapt audiences.

“I’m not good at socialization and so I don’t like to attend parties or give speeches, but sometimes I have to do that,” he said. “The rest of the year I’m at home, just working. I’m kind of a workaholic.”

- Author: Alexandra Alter, The NEW YORK TIMES