“For Murakami, long-haul running is not just a metaphor for the loneliness of the long-distance novelist; it’s pretty well synonymous with it. In the style of Albert Camus — who claimed that much of what he knew about morality and duty he learned from soccer — Murakami believes that “most of what I know about writing I’ve learned through running every day.” Specifically, he believes that writing requires, in order of priority, talent, focus and endurance — all of which find their complements in the habit of running. Writing, he thinks, is “an unhealthy type of work” because it brings the author face to face with the “toxin that lies deep down in all humanity” and without which “no creative activity in the real sense can take place.”—geoff dyer