Murakami and Eastwood

From the New Yorker Festival that just passed this weekend, a couple snippets of tastiness.

The first, words of wisdom (via the NYF blog) from Haruki Murakami on writing.

"He began by telling the story of a jazzman who, when accused of playing 'just like Charlie Parker,' handed his saxophone to his critic and said, 'Here—you try playing like Charlie Parker.' He said that we should draw three conclusions from this:

1. Criticizing somebody is fun and easy.

2. Meanwhile, creating something original is very hard.

3. But somebody’s got to do it.

He went on to reveal his writing secrets:

On inspiration: 'I became a writer all of a sudden. I don’t know why.'

On the three essentials to literature: 'Reason. Harmony. Free improvisation.'

On momentum: 'I wanted to turn the pages, but there were no pages—I had to write them. I don’t know what’s going to happen next, so I write it. And then I don’t know what’s going to happen next, so I write it.'

On happiness: 'If the protagonist is happy, there’s no story at all.'

On the toughness required to be a writer: 'You have to be Rocky.'

On writing in general: 'It’s fun.'"

And the second -- well, everyone wants to be a little more like Clint Eastwood. Duh. Time to pick up a musical instrument! Did you know he composed the musical scores (including the theme of Mystic River) for many of his films? Me neither. Watch this clip of him playing piano at the Directors Guild of America. He plays a little ragtime, some honky tonk, and picks out a squeensy bit of what sounds like a Chopin Nocturne. Clint, if you hadn't won me over already with your serious directing chops, you definitely did when you had your way on stage with those ivories.