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Writing a novel is like having a dream.

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In the novelist's profession, as far as I'm concerned, there's no such thing as winning or losing. Maybe numbers of copies sold, awards won, and criti...more

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It's a dark, cool, quiet place. A basement in your soul. And that place can sometimes be dangerous to the human mind. I can open the door and enter th...more

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You have to dream intentionally. Most people dream a dream when they are asleep. But to be a writer, you have to dream while you are awake, intentiona...more

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You like to write. It's the single most important quality for someone who wants to be a writer. But not in itself enough.

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Hundreds of butterflies flitted in and out of sight like short-lived punctuation marks in a stream of consciousness without beginning or end.

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Generally, people who are good at writing letters have no need to write letters. They've got plenty of life to lead inside their own context.

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The new day is almost here, but the old one is still dragging its heavy skirts. Just as ocean water and river water struggle against each other at a r...more

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I want to write about people who dream and wait for the night to end, who long for the light so they can hold the ones they love.

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I want to write stories that are different from the ones I've written so far, Junpei thought: I want to write about people who dream and wait for the ...more

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Sometimes we don't need words. Rather, it's words that need us.

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That's how it is with art. Mere humans who root through their refrigerators at three o'clock in the morning are incapable of such writing.

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There's no such thing as perfect writing, just like there's no such thing as perfect despair.

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All the same, writing honestly is very difficult. The more I try to be honest, the farther my words sink into darkness.

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Like someone excitedly relating a story, only to find the words petering out, the path gets narrower the further I go, the undergrowth taking over.