WEBVTT 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 When people ask me what is my main inspiration 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I say it is the ancient Greek drama 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 if you take a play like Medea that's written 2300 years ago 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it is about a woman who murders her children because of jalousy in relation to her husband 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 if that is not a crime story, I don't know what a crime story is 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the only difference is that there is no police officer in it 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because in Greece at that time there was no police force 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but I can assure you if they had had a police force, there would also have a policeman in the play 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but this story uses the mirror of crime to look upon contradictions in society 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that is what interests me. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Look at McBeth, take McBeth and put Richard Nixon in there: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you have the same story, in a way. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And then I can say that, yes, there are also pure crime fictions that inspire me. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For example Sherlock Holmes. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Because many histories talk about English society, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 about hypocrisy, about many things 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, I don't see any differences by writing crime fiction or another novel 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I think, I put up my cheek a little and say that crime fiction is one of the oldest literary genre that exists 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it's not invented by Edgar Alan Poe, it's much older than that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 All of my ancestors were musicians, they were playing in churches, organ players and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 my grandfather was a composer and I think that when I was young I also thought of myself as a musician 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but I realised quite quickly that (I was playing the violin) I would never be as good as I would want to be 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 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 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But on the other hand you might say that music is a very essential part of writing 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 as it is in painting, as it is in sculpturing, as it is in any other kind of art making, I would say 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 My home was full of music but it was also full of books 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and I think I grew up in what you can call a really, really liberal family because 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 first of all no one said anything if you were late at night reading 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and secondly no one asked you what you read 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and that is to me a good definition of what is a liberal family 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I think that the specific thing with my childhood was the fact that there was no mother around 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 she had left the family so I grew up with my father and he was very occupied 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but I can still remember at night sometimes I would tell him something about what I had read 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and he was clever enough to take two minutes to listen to all the stupid things that I said 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and about what I read 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and I think it is one of the lessons that I learned: you always have to listen to a child 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I think that the real artist is the child because if you remember back when you were 4, 5 or 6 years old, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you know, you had an enormous belief in the fact that you could transform a stone into a car, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 or a piece of wood into whatever 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now, then you start school and you know what happens 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 rationality takes over … maybe it is necessary 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but later on when you maybe eventually would like to become an artist, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 then you have to reconquer the thing you had as a child 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I think that it has to do with the sort of connection back to the courage you had as a child 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to ask the really, really difficult questions 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I sometimes ask people when I am out talking: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 who do you think is my greatest idol? or icon? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and people guess this, and that, and I say 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 no, I have photo, a small photo on my wall 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and the greatest idol is myself as a 12 year old 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and when I watch this guy, this boy, this me at 12 years old, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I think that at time I was at my best. I didn't see any limit to life. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I believed in imagination, in fantasy, and reality 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I thought every mountain was possible to climb, every desert was possible to get through 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so I look at that boy and I try to imitate him, I try to be as brave and as good as he was. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The sensation of being able to put one word after another word making a sentence, and then making another sentence, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and then having a story … this is to me a miracle. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And this is the understanding of reading 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and then obviously came the next miracle: that you realise that you could do that yourself. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It was the next miracle. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I still remember that the first thing I ever wrote was a verse on Robinson Crusoe on one page 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I would give a finger to have that paper left 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 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, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 still believe that Robinson Crusoe is the best novel ever written 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 for a very simple reason: because Robinson is not alone on the island before Friday comes, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 he is alone on the island with the reader and that's important 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you are on that island, with Robinson, … you help him out 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that is a genius way of telling a story. I could never think of a plot better than that one 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You could take out certain characters in certain books, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 take them out of the books and bring them with you as friends. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I think one of the most important thing with art is that you get friends there 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you could have a painting somewhere; when you see someone in a painting 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you could take that person out of the painting and make that person a friend 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that follows you in life. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Art to me is essential to see how the world looks, to understand the world by seeing how other people demonstrate it 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it could be Francis Bacon or Goya or Ken Holtz (?) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Sometimes I can understand it immediately 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 sometimes I don't understand it at all 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and sometimes I don't want to understand it. I just want that feeling to be sucked into my universe and stay there 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I think real art, whether it is a painting or music, or whatever, always gives you a certain surprise 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 if there is no surprise, I think it falls down. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I go down to the Prado museum in Madrid once a year, it is a sort of pilgrimage that I do, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I spend two days there. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And you know to walk the rooms full of paintings by Velasquez and then come into Goya, for example, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 well, it is not the same museum; it is not the same … it is like it is two different worlds 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you could say they are both painters but there is something more they are different in, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they tell me different stories about the human condition 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I think you cannot come closer than that to defining art: a good artist tells you A story of life. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Another artist tells you another story, a bad artist doesn't tell you anything. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 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 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and I think it is not good because we must be able to say that some art is better than other 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 then we can discuss that: what do you mean by that?, I don't agree with you … but we can have the discussion. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Today I think that critics are very … they lack courage in a way. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I think that if you look through history, in most art, the important kind of art, whether it is sculpture, books or whatever, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 there is some dimension of a dream, of a better society 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and it's obvious to me and to most people that we are living in a terrible world today 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and the most terrible thing with the world today, it does so many problems, it's completely unnecessary 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 let me just give one example: me as a writer 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in year 2012, millions upon millions of children go out in life illiterate, they cannot read, they cannot write 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and this is absolutely unnecessary. We could have eradicated illiteracy a long time ago 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 if we really would have wanted to do it. But we don't do it, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so these people are lost because still reading and writing and the little mathematics are the most important tools you have in life 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and I find this so disgusting, such a shame, that obviously I have to talk about it 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 when people ask me can people buy your books, novels, in Mozambique 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I say, "why?". There is only one book important here and that is the ABC book 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 whether it is a computer program or a book, I don't care 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but eradicate illiteracy before you talk about something else 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and then we can go on and on, look on the word and most problems that kill people are unnecessary 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and I wouldn't understand how could I use my instrument without in one or another way talk about this 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I could not understand myself 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 As a writer I am an intellectual and as an intellectual, my responsibility is to react in a way 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to what I see in society 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that is the role of the intellectual 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 at least if you have the idea of being a radical intellectual 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 for me it goes back to the enlightenment time of Diderot and Montaigne 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the role of the intellectual 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and I believe this is right and that is why I act the way I act 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I do write, I do write many various things but I also talk if necessary 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I would say it is my relation to the ideal of the enlightenment 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and I agree with that, with the fact that you should talk