I have read 'The Long Goodbye' about six times. I memorized some parts. But I did not want to write detective stories, I'm interested in the structure. The most important thing I learned from Chandler is the sense of humor and very sophisticated conversation. The sense that something has gone seriously wrong in modern Japan is never far below the surface.
Some people go to their company every morning, on a packed train, and other people go to their cult.
At the cult they don't have to think about anything at all. The guru decides everything for them, it's very easy. And these other people, they go to their company and they do what they do, and that is easy for them because someone orders them what to do. But I think we have to find the other way, something more free, particularly in Japan. Things are different in the States, I think.