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Harry Styles has a new outlook on making music.
The "Aperture" singer spoke with Japanese writer Haruki Murakami for a new interview with Runner's World published on Tuesday (March 3) where he credited Murakami's memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About Running for inspiring him to overcome a need to be a "tortured soul" to be a good musician, per People.
"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," he said.
The English singer, who has run in a couple marathons over the last few years, explained that Murakami's viewpoint helped him realize that prioritizing health can lend itself to creativity.
"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," he said. "So I have a lot of gratitude to you for that."
Styles, who is preparing to release his fourth solo album Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. on Friday, previously opened up about feeling "very alone" after One Direction and finding his voice as a solo artist.
"But I also felt very alone all of a sudden," he said of the band's 2015 hiatus. "I was lucky to have the opportunity where people were interested in what I was going to make, but I put a lot of that pressure on myself, wanting it to be correct."
Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. drops March 6.