1 00:00:01,203 --> 00:00:05,056 When people ask me what is my main inspiration 2 00:00:05,056 --> 00:00:08,204 I say it is the ancient Greek drama 3 00:00:08,204 --> 00:00:13,416 if you take a play like Medea that's written 2300 years ago 4 00:00:13,416 --> 00:00:19,656 it is about a woman who murders her children because of jalousy in relation to her husband 5 00:00:19,656 --> 00:00:23,954 if that is not a crime story, I don't know what a crime story is 6 00:00:23,954 --> 00:00:29,121 the only difference is that there is no police officer in it 7 00:00:29,121 --> 00:00:33,122 because in Greece at that time there was no police force 8 00:00:33,122 --> 00:00:39,979 but I can assure you if they had had a police force, there would also have a policeman in the play 9 00:00:39,979 --> 00:00:46,703 but this story uses the mirror of crime to look upon contradictions in society 10 00:00:46,703 --> 00:00:49,536 that is what interests me. 11 00:00:49,536 --> 00:00:54,696 Look at McBeth, take McBeth and put Richard Nixon in there: 12 00:00:54,696 --> 00:00:58,816 you have the same story, in a way. 13 00:00:58,816 --> 00:01:05,658 And then I can say that, yes, there are also pure crime fictions that inspire me. 14 00:01:05,658 --> 00:01:07,786 For example Sherlock Holmes. 15 00:01:07,786 --> 00:01:13,120 Because many histories talk about English society, 16 00:01:13,120 --> 00:01:17,056 about hypocrisy, about many things 17 00:01:17,056 --> 00:01:23,258 So, I don't see any differences by writing crime fiction or another novel 18 00:01:23,258 --> 00:01:32,285 I think, I put up my cheek a little and say that crime fiction is one of the oldest literary genre that exists 19 00:01:32,285 --> 00:01:38,578 it's not invented by Edgar Alan Poe, it's much older than that. 20 00:01:38,578 --> 00:01:45,658 All of my ancestors were musicians, they were playing in churches, organ players and 21 00:01:45,658 --> 00:01:55,579 my grandfather was a composer and I think that when I was young I also thought of myself as a musician 22 00:01:55,579 --> 00:02:04,953 but I realised quite quickly that (I was playing the violin) I would never be as good as I would want to be 23 00:02:04,953 --> 00:02:14,856 so I, in a way, chose another instrument because you have to understand that writing is a sort of instrument you have in your hands 24 00:02:14,856 --> 00:02:22,287 But on the other hand you might say that music is a very essential part of writing 25 00:02:22,287 --> 00:02:33,121 as it is in painting, as it is in sculpturing, as it is in any other kind of art making, I would say 26 00:02:33,121 --> 00:02:38,818 My home was full of music but it was also full of books 27 00:02:38,818 --> 00:02:44,659 and I think I grew up in what you can call a really, really liberal family because 28 00:02:44,659 --> 00:02:51,817 first of all no one said anything if you were late at night reading 29 00:02:51,817 --> 00:02:55,496 and secondly no one asked you what you read 30 00:02:55,496 --> 00:02:59,738 and that is to me a good definition of what is a liberal family 31 00:02:59,738 --> 00:03:07,738 I think that the specific thing with my childhood was the fact that there was no mother around 32 00:03:07,738 --> 00:03:13,579 she had left the family so I grew up with my father and he was very occupied 33 00:03:13,579 --> 00:03:21,178 but I can still remember at night sometimes I would tell him something about what I had read 34 00:03:21,178 --> 00:03:29,057 and he was clever enough to take two minutes to listen to all the stupid things that I said 35 00:03:29,057 --> 00:03:31,537 and about what I read 36 00:03:31,537 --> 00:03:38,287 and I think it is one of the lessons that I learned: you always have to listen to a child 37 00:03:38,287 --> 00:03:47,453 I think that the real artist is the child because if you remember back when you were 4, 5 or 6 years old, 38 00:03:47,453 --> 00:03:56,286 you know, you had an enormous belief in the fact that you could transform a stone into a car, 39 00:03:56,286 --> 00:03:59,818 or a piece of wood into whatever 40 00:03:59,818 --> 00:04:03,656 Now, then you start school and you know what happens 41 00:04:03,656 --> 00:04:07,977 rationality takes over … maybe it is necessary 42 00:04:07,977 --> 00:04:14,657 but later on when you maybe eventually would like to become an artist, 43 00:04:14,657 --> 00:04:20,498 then you have to reconquer the thing you had as a child 44 00:04:20,498 --> 00:04:27,736 I think that it has to do with the sort of connection back to the courage you had as a child 45 00:04:27,736 --> 00:04:32,058 to ask the really, really difficult questions 46 00:04:32,058 --> 00:04:39,120 I sometimes ask people when I am out talking: 47 00:04:39,120 --> 00:04:44,786 who do you think is my greatest idol? or icon? 48 00:04:44,786 --> 00:04:47,817 and people guess this, and that, and I say 49 00:04:47,817 --> 00:04:52,258 no, I have photo, a small photo on my wall 50 00:04:52,258 --> 00:04:57,738 and the greatest idol is myself as a 12 year old 51 00:04:57,738 --> 00:05:02,285 and when I watch this guy, this boy, this me at 12 years old, 52 00:05:02,285 --> 00:05:08,120 I think that at time I was at my best. I didn't see any limit to life. 53 00:05:08,120 --> 00:05:13,098 I believed in imagination, in fantasy, and reality 54 00:05:13,098 --> 00:05:23,577 I thought every mountain was possible to climb, every desert was possible to get through 55 00:05:23,577 --> 00:05:30,498 so I look at that boy and I try to imitate him, I try to be as brave and as good as he was. 56 00:05:30,498 --> 00:05:39,120 The sensation of being able to put one word after another word making a sentence, and then making another sentence, 57 00:05:39,120 --> 00:05:44,454 and then having a story … this is to me a miracle. 58 00:05:44,454 --> 00:05:47,286 And this is the understanding of reading 59 00:05:47,286 --> 00:05:53,576 and then obviously came the next miracle: that you realise that you could do that yourself. 60 00:05:53,576 --> 00:05:56,578 It was the next miracle. 61 00:05:56,578 --> 00:06:07,096 I still remember that the first thing I ever wrote was a verse on Robinson Crusoe on one page 62 00:06:07,096 --> 00:06:10,205 I would give a finger to have that paper left 63 00:06:10,205 --> 00:06:19,059 but I don't have it, it's gone of course … I probably was 6 years old when I wrote it and I, by the way, 64 00:06:19,059 --> 00:06:25,786 still believe that Robinson Crusoe is the best novel ever written 65 00:06:25,786 --> 00:06:33,657 for a very simple reason: because Robinson is not alone on the island before Friday comes, 66 00:06:33,657 --> 00:06:39,619 he is alone on the island with the reader and that's important 67 00:06:39,619 --> 00:06:44,621 you are on that island, with Robinson, … you help him out 68 00:06:44,621 --> 00:06:53,036 that is a genius way of telling a story. I could never think of a plot better than that one 69 00:06:53,036 --> 00:06:58,338 You could take out certain characters in certain books, 70 00:06:58,338 --> 00:07:03,370 take them out of the books and bring them with you as friends. 71 00:07:03,370 --> 00:07:07,618 I think one of the most important thing with art is that you get friends there 72 00:07:07,618 --> 00:07:10,978 you could have a painting somewhere; when you see someone in a painting 73 00:07:10,978 --> 00:07:15,496 you could take that person out of the painting and make that person a friend 74 00:07:15,496 --> 00:07:18,336 that follows you in life. 75 00:07:18,336 --> 00:07:29,787 Art to me is essential to see how the world looks, to understand the world by seeing how other people demonstrate it 76 00:07:29,787 --> 00:07:35,336 it could be Francis Bacon or Goya or Ken Holtz (?) 77 00:07:35,336 --> 00:07:38,977 Sometimes I can understand it immediately 78 00:07:38,977 --> 00:07:41,939 sometimes I don't understand it at all 79 00:07:41,939 --> 00:07:49,976 and sometimes I don't want to understand it. I just want that feeling to be sucked into my universe and stay there 80 00:07:49,976 --> 00:07:58,536 I think real art, whether it is a painting or music, or whatever, always gives you a certain surprise 81 00:07:58,536 --> 00:08:03,936 if there is no surprise, I think it falls down. 82 00:08:03,936 --> 00:08:10,952 I go down to the Prado museum in Madrid once a year, it is a sort of pilgrimage that I do, 83 00:08:10,952 --> 00:08:13,177 I spend two days there. 84 00:08:13,177 --> 00:08:22,120 And you know to walk the rooms full of paintings by Velasquez and then come into Goya, for example, 85 00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:30,619 well, it is not the same museum; it is not the same … it is like it is two different worlds 86 00:08:30,619 --> 00:08:35,017 you could say they are both painters but there is something more they are different in, 87 00:08:35,017 --> 00:08:40,417 they tell me different stories about the human condition 88 00:08:40,417 --> 00:08:49,737 I think you cannot come closer than that to defining art: a good artist tells you A story of life. 89 00:08:49,737 --> 00:08:56,017 Another artist tells you another story, a bad artist doesn't tell you anything. 90 00:08:56,017 --> 00:09:04,418 I'm not afraid of talking about good art and bad art. I think we are living in a time when people are afraid of talking about that 91 00:09:04,418 --> 00:09:10,204 and I think it is not good because we must be able to say that some art is better than other 92 00:09:10,204 --> 00:09:18,122 then we can discuss that: what do you mean by that?, I don't agree with you … but we can have the discussion. 93 00:09:18,122 --> 00:09:23,498 Today I think that critics are very … they lack courage in a way. 94 00:09:23,498 --> 00:09:35,620 I think that if you look through history, in most art, the important kind of art, whether it is sculpture, books or whatever, 95 00:09:35,620 --> 00:09:41,058 there is some dimension of a dream, of a better society 96 00:09:41,058 --> 00:09:49,497 and it's obvious to me and to most people that we are living in a terrible world today 97 00:09:49,497 --> 00:09:57,286 and the most terrible thing with the world today, it does so many problems, it's completely unnecessary 98 00:09:57,286 --> 00:10:02,286 let me just give one example: me as a writer 99 00:10:02,286 --> 00:10:13,203 in year 2012, millions upon millions of children go out in life illiterate, they cannot read, they cannot write 100 00:10:13,203 --> 00:10:20,869 and this is absolutely unnecessary. We could have eradicated illiteracy a long time ago 101 00:10:20,869 --> 00:10:25,120 if we really would have wanted to do it. But we don't do it, 102 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:34,122 so these people are lost because still reading and writing and the little mathematics are the most important tools you have in life 103 00:10:34,122 --> 00:10:40,453 and I find this so disgusting, such a shame, that obviously I have to talk about it 104 00:10:40,453 --> 00:10:45,370 when people ask me can people buy your books, novels, in Mozambique 105 00:10:45,370 --> 00:10:52,577 I say, "why?". There is only one book important here and that is the ABC book 106 00:10:52,577 --> 00:10:56,499 whether it is a computer program or a book, I don't care 107 00:10:56,499 --> 00:11:02,286 but eradicate illiteracy before you talk about something else 108 00:11:02,286 --> 00:11:10,371 and then we can go on and on, look on the word and most problems that kill people are unnecessary 109 00:11:10,371 --> 00:11:18,057 and I wouldn't understand how could I use my instrument without in one or another way talk about this 110 00:11:18,057 --> 00:11:21,871 I could not understand myself 111 00:11:21,871 --> 00:11:30,120 As a writer I am an intellectual and as an intellectual, my responsibility is to react in a way 112 00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:32,786 to what I see in society 113 00:11:32,786 --> 00:11:35,036 that is the role of the intellectual 114 00:11:35,036 --> 00:11:39,536 at least if you have the idea of being a radical intellectual 115 00:11:39,536 --> 00:11:48,576 for me it goes back to the Enlightenment times of Diderot and Voltaire 116 00:11:48,576 --> 00:11:51,818 the role of the intellectual 117 00:11:51,818 --> 00:11:56,286 and I believe this is right and that is why I act the way I act 118 00:11:56,286 --> 00:12:03,036 I do write, I do write many various things but I also talk if necessary 119 00:12:03,036 --> 00:12:11,057 I would say it is my relation to the ideal of the Enlightenment 120 00:12:11,057 --> 00:12:14,204 and I agree with that, with the fact that you should talk 121 00:12:14,204 --> 00:12:19,536 I agree we are living in a very strange situation: 122 00:12:19,536 --> 00:12:23,417 we have never seen such a flow of information 123 00:12:23,417 --> 00:12:26,536 and never have people known so little 124 00:12:26,536 --> 00:12:32,338 because everything has been done into fragments 125 00:12:32,338 --> 00:12:38,954 just look at TV news in Denmark and Sweden, short news, 126 00:12:38,954 --> 00:12:45,817 the worst case if obviously the US where you don't understand anything of the news 127 00:12:45,817 --> 00:12:55,037 so that is obviously a risk and I agree also that words are misused very much today 128 00:12:55,037 --> 00:12:59,203 very much today 129 00:12:59,203 --> 00:13:08,418 but I think that the word that you and I use will always be the most important in communications 130 00:13:08,418 --> 00:13:18,120 so I think there will always be a way of cleaning up the mess 131 00:13:18,120 --> 00:13:28,016 but what is very difficult for me today is when I read these twitter and blogs 132 00:13:28,016 --> 00:13:35,058 and it's a way of saying that simplifying things is the best thing 133 00:13:35,058 --> 00:13:41,287 and I say, no, complicate things … because the truth is always complicated in a way 134 00:13:41,287 --> 00:13:46,577 so I agree that something is happening with language but I'm not afraid that we will lose it 135 00:13:46,577 --> 00:13:50,787 because if we lose it, we lose our humanity 136 00:13:50,787 --> 00:13:52,620 no, we won't do that 137 00:13:52,620 --> 00:14:02,285 I think there is also a need, among many readers to get long stories 138 00:14:02,285 --> 00:14:06,338 they are so fed up with these short fragments 139 00:14:06,338 --> 00:14:11,258 so, they want a long story. They want, in a way, Dickens 140 00:14:11,258 --> 00:14:17,577 which I also do myself: if I find a good novel which is 400 pages, I'm happy 141 00:14:17,577 --> 00:14:22,418 if it is bad, it doesn't matter if it is 100 or 400 pages 142 00:14:22,418 --> 00:14:28,878 so, I'm not afraid even of the epic story will survive 143 00:14:28,878 --> 00:14:33,657 I know of course that I'll never be able to do everything I want 144 00:14:33,657 --> 00:14:40,936 death will always come to disturb you, you never know when it comes 145 00:14:40,936 --> 00:14:49,996 and in some very few moments I can feel a sort of desperation, even a sort of depression about that fright 146 00:14:49,996 --> 00:15:01,763 but that is life. If you listen for example to the string quartets that Beethoven wrote when he was old, 147 00:15:01,763 --> 00:15:06,458 they are presenting you with something completely new in his music 148 00:15:06,458 --> 00:15:14,379 it is like he had ..., when he started to become old, he didn't give a shit about anything 149 00:15:14,379 --> 00:15:22,346 he had nothing to lose so he started to write some very, very new music that the world had never heard before 150 00:15:22,346 --> 00:15:26,057 that is his latest string quartets 151 00:15:26,057 --> 00:15:34,539 so, it might be that things happen when you get older that give you a sort of new freedom, 152 00:15:34,539 --> 00:15:38,457 you don't know that so, this is what I hope for 153 00:15:38,457 --> 00:15:48,514 to me, obviously, life has meaning when I can sit down and try to formulate something 154 00:15:48,514 --> 00:15:54,766 because whatever you do, is trying, you're trying … you never know when you're gonna succeed or not, 155 00:15:54,955 --> 00:15:57,649 but you are trying to do something 156 00:15:57,649 --> 00:16:05,121 that is the closest I can come to a meaning of life in the creativity 157 00:16:05,121 --> 00:16:11,405 I don't think I have a more intelligent answer than that.