You are 27 or 28 right? It is very tough to live at that age. When nothing is sure. I have sympathy with you.
Haruki MurakamiRead
Every day I go to my study and sit at my desk and put the computer on. At that moment, I have to open the door. It's a big, heavy door. You have to go into the Other Room. Metaphorically, of course. And you have to come back to this side of the room. And you have to shut the door.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of separating oneself from distractions to engage deeply with creative or intellectual work.
In this quote, Haruki Murakami uses the metaphor of a heavy door to illustrate the deliberate effort it takes to transition from the mundane world into a space of focus and creativity. By describing the act of opening and shutting the door, he highlights the necessary commitment to isolate oneself from distractions, allowing for deeper contemplation and engagement with one's work. The 'Other Room' symbolizes the realm of imagination and creativity that one must enter to produce meaningful outputs.
Themes
CreativityFocusImaginationDistractionWork
In practice
Example use cases
In a creative writing class, a teacher might use this quote to inspire students to focus on their writing process.
More from Haruki Murakami
All quotes →They take the circuits out of people’s brains that make it possible for them to think for themselves. Their world is like the one that George Orwell depicted in his novel. I’m sure you realize that there are plenty of people who are looking for exactly that kind of brain death. It makes life a lot easier. You don’t have to think about difficult things, just shut up and do what your superiors tell you to do.
Haruki MurakamiRead
Memories and thoughts age, just as people do. But certain thoughts can never age, and certain memories can never fade.
Haruki MurakamiRead
I think you still love me, but we can’t escape the fact that I’m not enough for you. I knew this was going to happen. So I’m not blaming you for falling in love with another woman. I’m not angry, either. I should be, but I’m not. I just feel pain. A lot of pain. I thought I could imagine how much this would hurt, but I was wrong.
Haruki MurakamiRead
Everybody burns out in this world; amateur, pro, it doesn't matter, they all burn out, they all get hurt, the OK guys and the not-OK guys both. That's why everybody takes out a little insurance. I've got some too, here at the bottom of the heap. That way, you manage to survive if you burn out. If you're all by yourself and don't belong anywhere, you go down once, and you're out. Finished.
Haruki MurakamiRead
Life is so uncertain: you never know what could happen. One way to deal with that is to keep your pajamas washed.
Haruki MurakamiRead
Similar quotes
The home to everyone is to him his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury and violence, as for his repose.
Edward CokeRead
We have found that where science has progressed the farthest, the mind has but regained from nature that which the mind put into nature.
Arthur EddingtonRead
One of the things that distinguishes man from the other animals is that he wants to know things, wants to find out what reality is like, simply for the sake of knowing. When that desire is completely quenched in anyone, I think he has become something less than human.
C. S. LewisRead
Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.
Norman MacleanRead
It is to be remarked that a good many people are born curiously unfitted for the fate waiting them on this earth.
Joseph ConradRead
We gain internal freedom through external actions.
Ram DassRead