How to Form a Habit

Murakami writes for five to six hours straight. The rest of the day he runs or swims, reads, listens to music and goes to bed early. He has said in an interview with the Paris Review that keeping this routine without variation is very important because the repetition itself is a form of mesmerism. Once you've got the habit up and running, it's difficult to break the habit. Tolstoy would emphasize the need to be consistent. Stephen King would talk of a typical workday in terms of a quota, in terms of output.