One of my all-time favorite jazz pianists is Thelonious Monk. Once, when
someone asked him how he managed to get a certain special sound out of the piano, Monk pointed to the keyboard and said: “It can’t be any new note.
When you look at the keyboard, all the notes are there already. But if you
mean a note enough, it will sound different. You got to pick the notes you
really mean!”
I often recall these words when I am writing, and I think to myself, “It’s
true. There aren’t any new words. Our job is to give new meanings and
special overtones to absolutely ordinary words.” I find the thought reassuring. It means that vast, unknown stretches still lie before us, fertile territories just waiting for us to cultivate them.
Haruki Murakami ( Novelist )
