Novelist Haruki Murakami has good advice on what you can do when life looks dark

The novelist Haruki Murakami says that we should respond to hardship and tragedy with our creativity, that it is essential to helping heal the world. Art — all of culture — helps us connect and to imagine and build a better future.

“I was wondering what could I do for the people who have suffered. But I thought, ‘What I can do is to write good fiction.’ After all, when I write a good story, good fiction, we can understand each other if you are a reader and I’m a writer,” Murakami said. “There is a special secret passage between us, and we can send a message to each other. So I think (writing good stories) is a way I can contribute to society or people in the world.”

Read more at Quartz.

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