Mar 03, 2026 12:00 PM EST
The global pop superstar chats with legendary author and fellow marathoner Haruki Murakami on the sublime simplicity of runningâand how it nourishes the creative life. By Sophie Heawood Photography by Laura Jane Coulson
Harry Styles is asking for advice. Heâd been nervous about today, almost couldnât believe it was happening. But excited too, to sit down with one of his heroes, a man who had made him feel it was okay to be vulnerable. Someone who inspired him to take up running. Marathons, specifically.
âI wonder if you might have any advice to pass on to me: as a man, as an artist and as a runner?â he asks.
He poses this to Haruki Murakami, celebrated Japanese novelist and author of What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, a book Styles credits with making him believe he actually could run a marathon. Which he did in 2025, first in Tokyo finishing in 3:24, then in Berlin six months later, when he crossed the finish line in a stunning 2:59:13.
âSuch a difficult question,â says Murakami with a chuckle.
âWell, as a human being really,â Styles clarifies, laughing too.
Theyâve been chatting for an hour or so, Styles having flown in to meet the writer near his home. They make an unlikely pair: the 32-year-old singer, songwriter, and actor, and the 77-year-old best-selling author. But they share a love of running and quickly develop an easy rapport.
Styles has come prepared, with deliberate and thoughtful questions revealing a level of introspection rare in a young man whoâs been in the public eye since the age of 16.
The wide-ranging conversation covers a lot: attention span (Harryâs, he struggled with reading as a kid), illness (Murakamiâs, heâs recovering from a hospital stay and hasnât been able to run), solitude, observation, music, creativity, fame, and the desire to be ordinary.
And running of course, which has everything to do with all of that.
Murakami, who has finished more than 25 marathons, thinks for another beat, then declares, âOne of the important things for human beings is to embrace the contradiction. When Iâm writing, I always feel I have a contradiction and thatâs why I want to express myselfâŠto understand it. Even at my age Iâm still wondering, what is this chaos in me?
âThat would be my advice to you as an artist as well as a man. If thereâs something thatâs dirty within you, you canât just present it as is. You kind of have to turn the contradiction into something positive by sharing it with other people who might not think they have one. Sublimate those contradictions within you into art.â
He pauses again, then smiles. âMy advice for you as a runner? No contradictions.âLaura Jane Coulson
Glasses: Oakley Cybr Zero.Laura Jane Coulson
T-shirt and Adidas trainers: vintage, sourced on eBay. Shorts: Pleasing. Socks: Calzedonia.
YOU CANâT GO TOO FAST TOO QUICKLY
Harry Styles:Â One of the things I really loved in your book about running was that it freed me from the idea that music had to be an unhealthy profession and I had to be this tortured soul.
Your point is that being healthy makes you able to be an artist for a long time, that you can be a structured, healthy person and make great work. So I have a lot of gratitude to you for that.
Haruki Murakami:Â To write a book is not so difficult, but if you try to keep on writing, you have to be strong. Itâs powered by endurance.
When I was in my teens, musicians died so young. Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix. I think they couldnât waitâlive fast, die young. But that is not a thing that I wanted.
What I wanted to do was live a normal life because Iâm just a normal guyâbut then write abnormal books. Thatâs the kind of ideal that I was pursuing.
HS:Â If you want to run a marathon, it takes a lot of discipline. You canât go too fast too quickly.
Has it always felt obvious to you that your running and writing feed each other? Or do you think it can be really easy to overcomplicate that, and actually, you just like writing and you also just like running?
HM:Â Running and writing books both match my personality. With running, itâs not just about speed. I was never into sports that involve balls. Itâs more about me competing with my own self.
HS:Â We live in a time when making such an effort can be considered quite uncool, and thereâs this romanticism that comes with the idea of being an artist, as if itâs this almost spiritual thing that just happens to you. But in your work I see a lack of fear around being uncool.
When you write about sex and masculinity, your characters arenât all experts at sexâthere are a lot of scenes of them fumbling around. Thereâs an innocence to them, as well as vulnerability, and shame.
That has definitely changed the way I view being masculine and being vulnerable. I wondered if that was something you felt you did consciously or discovered while you were writing it?
HM:Â Iâm just an ordinary guy. Always. When I was a teenager or in my 20s, I wasnât particularly adept at anything. But when I graduated college, I didnât want to be a salaryman or to belong to a company. I created a small jazz club in Tokyo, I owned it, and I didnât think I was going to be a writer, I just loved to read books.
But when I turned 29 the desire to write was very strong. So I wrote a book and I became a novelistâkind of on a whim.
But Iâm still an ordinary guy living an ordinary life with my wife and everything. When I get interviewed, I sometimes feel awkward because why would an interviewer think that Iâm special? Thatâs why the characters in my books are just normal people and they have that awkwardness.
I donât even think Iâm a creator; Iâm just a recipient. I love to listen to music, I love to read books, but Iâm just a reader, just a listener. I did try to practice some musical instruments, but I couldnât get into it because I hate practice. Itâs boring.
HS:Â Oh, it is.
(They both laugh.)Laura Jane Coulson
Nike track jacket: vintage, sourced on eBay.
IN THIS TOGETHER
Stylesâs fourth album, Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally, drops March 6. Fans have been clamoring since 2022 for a follow-up to the chart-topping Harryâs House.
But after years of intense touring, Styles was prepared to wait much longer to record againâfive, eight, 12 years if he had to. He was no longer sure what he wanted to say.
âSomething Iâve often struggled with, in the middle of a tour, is feeling like Iâm not sure what Iâm giving, not sure what Iâm adding to the world. Especially when the reward system and the kind ofâŠadulation that you can receive feels so loud. Like clearly Iâm getting so much from this, Iâm getting all this energy. People are giving me so much, which I deeply appreciate. But what am I contributing? At times I felt quite existential about that.â
In 2010 when he stood baby-faced and floppy-haired on The X Factor stage describing plans to study law and sociology at university, he was just an ordinary lad with a part-time job in a bakery and a mum who thought he could sing.
Sixteen years later, after navigating stratospheric success and the massive operational apparatus that comes with it, those existential feelings were exacerbated by a sense of growing isolation.
âOver the years, I had to say no to everything I was invited to,â he says, âwhether it was a friendâs birthday, a trip somewhere amazing, an opening. I started to wonder if I was saying no because I really was so busy or because it was more comfortable than saying yes. When you close yourself off to protect yourself from people who might bring negativity into your life, youâre also missing out on positive experiences.âLaura Jane Coulson
Shorts and cap: vintage, sourced on eBay.
He turned 30 in 2024 and decided to take some time off work, partly to do the things that people did in their 20s.
He started traveling for fun, âfor the first time inâwell, in some ways, ever,â he says. Japan, Spain, Germany. He loved Berlin, and found himself going back again and again, making new friends, hitting the club scene at night.
âGood electronic music is so good, you knowâespecially the melodic aspect. When youâre out at night, itâs such a community, but youâre also watching people have such individual experiences.â
He began to think he wanted his next album to deliver that feeling. âI wanted to recreate [what] I had on the dance floor, being lost in instrumentation and the musicality. It was so immersive, like, this is how I want to feel when Iâm on stage too.
âI donât want it to feel like a sermon Iâm delivering. I wanted it to feel like, oh, weâre in this music together. Like Iâm in it with you.â
This lifestyle was a lot for someone so accustomed to more structure, which is where running came in. It offered discipline and a different way of being alone.
âBecause in some of those new experiences, thereâs just so much stimulation, right? So many people, and itâs just so loud. So then running also became my processing place for all of that. Really being by myself.
âWhen youâre training for a marathon, which is the loneliest part, you just kind of set out for a run, and three hours later you come back. But thereâs a real synergy between that and electronic music. Itâs kind of hypnotic and becomes like a mantra almost.â
He started recording the new album in early 2025 with his longtime producer Kid Harpoon at Hansa Studios in Berlin, near a five-mile stretch of road he ran most days. Sometimes heâd listen to his own demos on his phone, making notes as he went.
âI used to have song playlists but realized that Iâd be too aware of saying to myself, âOkay, just 20 more songs to go,ââ he says.
âWhen I started listening to more electronic musicââartists like British electronic producers Floating Points and Jamie XX, or mixes by German techno DJs Fadi Mohem and Ben Klockââthe shift felt just very hypnotic, like oh Iâm really lost in this thing. It was helpful to my running to get to that place where I felt like I was meditating right there. It makes the time go by in such a different way.âLaura Jane Coulson
Track jacket and pants: Pleasing.Laura Jane Coulson
JUST YOU MOVING THROUGH THE WORLD
HS:Â Do you find that you end up being creative while youâre running, or is it a time when you set everything else aside?
Personally, Iâve found the hypnotic, meditative aspect of music to have a lot of synergy with the meditative aspect of running.
When Iâm running is when I haveâŠtime to think a lot about what Iâm making and other things in my life too.
HM:Â When Iâm running, Iâm just running. I donât think much. I listen to music mostly.
When I come back to sit in front of the desk I begin thinking, but when Iâm running, Iâm kind of empty. Something comes into me, but I donât notice it.
To be empty is my one of my purposes with running. I feel that training your body is the way to create the perfect vessel, building a foundation for the ideas to come into.
HS:Â For me, one of the things that can be complicated is that, as an artist, say if youâre a novelist or a musician or a filmmaker, youâre an observerâbut when you become a known person, you become the observed. You know youâre still the same, but other people can begin to view you as something different.
So something I love so much about running is the simplicity of it. You are the observer once more, and you can go about your day in the most naked form. Itâs just you, alone, moving through the world.
Thatâs what I love about it: You donât need anything, just a pair of shoes.
HM:Â Ah, but thatâs not what Iâve got. As a novelist, I donât have to be observed that much, like you do in your job. As a writer, you can just stay in all you want. You donât have to meet anybody.
HS:Â One of my favorite things you ever wrote was, donât feel sorry for yourself, only assholes do that.
Something else I like in your work is the poetry of simple things, like how you describe sitting down to eat breakfast, or having a beer.
That has definitely influenced the small moments that I take to myself when I sit down and appreciate the everyday things in front of me. It changes the way that you see the world.Laura Jane Coulson
Glasses: Oakley Radar Plate. Shorts: vintage, sourced on eBay. Socks: Calzedonia. Shoes: Nike Vomero Plus.
A FIXED START AND A FINISH LINE
Originally from Cheshire in the north of England, Styles has lived in London for 15 years now and is a big fan of the hilly, green expanses of Hampstead Heath.
But when he started walking and running through the city itself, he fell in love with it in a different way.
âYou see things from ground level that you donât see if youâre driving. There were so many areas of London I had missed,â he says.
âAnd during my early days in One Direction, we spent so much time inside hotels and venues that there are countries Iâve been to that I didnât really experience.
âSo when I travel now, itâs about committing to going outdoors to see some stuff, whether thatâs running or walking. You experience places in a whole different way.â
Styles takes scant credit for much of his commercial success. Itâs âall about the fans, it isnât down to me. I canât sell out a venueâonly they can do that. And thereâs a producer that I work with who makes me great, and everyone who works on my teamâeverything that Iâve been rewarded for takes a lot of people.â Running, in a way, is the opposite of that, which provides a deeply refreshing contrast. The pursuit of creativityâmaking music, writing novelsâcan be freeing, but also loaded with pressure. An album might never feel finished, but a marathon has a fixed start and a finish line.
âSport is so binary, and itâs all about time,â Styles says. âItâs not about me trying to top the charts, because Iâm not that level of runner. But I can beat myself. Do the training and get through it.â
Styles isnât new to running. Heâd go out for some easy runs back in his 20s, but the habit didnât stick. âBeing young, I didnât stretch enough or take care of my body, so I got injured pretty quickly,â he says.
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Now he trusts that heâll show up. âThe satisfaction comes from knowing that on the Wednesday that I felt terrible, I still got up and ran,â he says.
âI used to think that trying to run a sub-3:00 was such a specific goal, the idea of doing it in such a close time, how do you manage to keep it up throughout? But the thing that appealed to me with running was how much I could actually control it.â
Heâs learning what parts he can control; pacing, for oneâhis splits in Berlin were nearly identical.
And fueling: âI usually drink a lot of water, but I was really scared of peeing myself during the [Berlin] Marathon, so I fueled up in the morning with a lot of electrolytes and not too much actual water, then I drank lots during the race,â he says.
As for food, âusually before every long run, I eat the biggest croissant I can find.â
What about the things he canât control? The sheer vulnerability, the nakedness of being a known person running through the streets of London?
About that, he seems surprisingly unbothered, often clad in bright, multicolored training gear and head-turning Nike Alphaflys.
âWell, the main thing is that youâre always moving. You can turn a corner wherever,â he says. âI think with people who see me, itâs a bit more âWas thatâŠ?â rather than, âOh look itâs him!â And by that time, youâre already gone.âLaura Jane CoulsonLaura Jane Coulson
NO ONE CAN RUN A MARATHON FOR YOU
HM:Â What I like about running is that itâs a very solitary thing, but only in a way. Youâre alone, but then youâre also with other runners, with a vague kind of boundary between you.
My book about running was translated into many languages, so wherever I go in the world, if Iâm on a run, other runners recognize me and call out my name. So wherever I go, I have a friend.
HS:Â In the first paragraph of that running book you claim itâs a well-known saying that a gentleman doesnât talk about women heâs dated or the tax heâs paid. Then you admit youâve just made it up, but that really people also shouldnât talk about how they stay healthy. Haha.
Itâs wonderful to start a book about running with a sense of humor. As the normal guy you said you areânot as some kind of ethereal character.
In fact I think my favorite thing about you is that I know nothing really about you, other than the work youâve given to people. So Iâm as deeply grateful for the amount that youâve chosen to keep to yourself as for what youâve chosen to share with us.
HM:Â You write music and you write the lyrics, right? Thatâs great. Iâve been wondering, always, what is creativity? I have been writing books, creating something, for 45 years or so, but still I donât know what creativity is.
There is something in me, but I cannot grasp that essence at will. Because, uh, it just comes to me. And when I finish writing, itâs gone. And I wait until it comes again.
But waiting is not an easy thing. Sometimes itâs so hard, because you are not sure if itâs coming back. But you have to wait.
HS:Â Yeah and submitting to that waiting can feel quite passiveâso perhaps the juxtaposition between that and running is what you enjoy so much.
With creativity being something that isnât tangible, itâs subjective, but then youâve got running in which there is a beginning and there is a finish line. Thereâs no finish line on being creative.
As a musician, thereâs so much that I still donât understand about what that means and what that will mean to me in years to come.
But [running is] a competition with yourself, whereas to make something and be celebrated for it externally is so much about other people deciding that they like it. It depends on them.
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HM:Â You have to create a foundation in order to put stuff on it. The act of running taught me many good things.
My peak as a runner was when I was 45 years old; after that, it went down. I knew there was a peak for everything, and I had to prepare for it.
But writing has no peakâIâm 77 years old, but Iâm still writing, and my new novel will be published this year. This July. I just finished it. Iâm very happy!
HS: Congratulations! After your book Norwegian Wood became such a huge hit [in the late 80s], was there some response, kind of like an artistic defiance there to make your next books more surreal?
And do you think any part of that was a subconscious reaction toâŠit becoming so popular in a way that felt unnatural to you, as someone who wanted to remain living as an ordinary person?
HM: In Japan, Norwegian Wood sold over two million copies at that time. So I was kind of depressed for a year or so because it became so popular. I donât want to be popular.
But I recovered from the depression, and I started to write something different. So that was my turning point, I guess. But how do you think about your albums that have sold well?
HS:Â Yeah, I get it. I think thereâs a point when youâre making something, when it feels so pure to you; a really beautiful moment where itâs finished and itâs just yours.
Then thereâs almost a sadness at the handing-over. You have to let it go, like sending your kid off to school, and then it feels somewhat detached from you.
But only in the last couple years have I realized how much of peopleâs responses to it are not necessarily about me at all. I think Iâm of less importance.
And that can be quite scary, realizing that itâs not about me, but it can also be really freeing to know actually, my job here is to just remain a person, and to keep recording that. Thatâs what my job is. Rather than me being supposed to deliver the answer and let everyone know what life is about.
I think thereâs freedom in realizing that actually my job is to let people watch while I ask the questions. Because questions are more interesting than answers.
HM:Â Yeah, I feel the same thing about my books, Iâm just offering the question, not the answers. There are obviously going to be critics and suchlike who say this guyâs the winner and that guyâs the winner, but I donât like that world, so I just stay away from it. Iâd rather be just running.
And I get the same vibe from you. Youâre probably not the person that cares about getting awards or how many records you sold, and you probably place some more importance on, you want to live the life you want to live.
You win an award because somebody else says youâre worthy of an award, but whatâs more important is what you think is of value to your life.
HS:Â Iâm in a field in which thereâs so much opinion on whoâs the best, with all these rankings of who sold the most, whoâs won this awardâeven though music is such a subjective thing and isnât really tangible like that.
The thing that Iâve found, in the rest of my life but particularly in running, is the idea of trusting myself to do exactly what I say Iâm going to do.
To say to myself, I know that you can do something difficult, and that you can get up and train when you donât want to train, and that youâre able to push through hard things.
Having that kind of self-integrityâno one can run a marathon for you. Whereas there are a lot of people who help me make music, put the music out, put on a show and make me look good at it! But running is a conversation with myself.
Creative Director: Molly Hawkins; Produced by: Someday Studio; Executive Producer: Andrew Gallo; Executive Producer: Wyatt Whitaker; Wardrobe Stylist: Harry Lambert; Makeup Artist: Carol Dotti; Hair Stylist: Candice Birns; Set Designer: Kelly Infield; Full Stop Management: Jeffrey Azoff, Tommy Bruce, Tom Skoglund; Hand Printing: Lloyd Ramos; Post Production: Imagine.
