[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:01.20,0:00:05.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,When people ask me what is my main inspiration
Dialogue: 0,0:00:05.06,0:00:08.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I say it is the ancient Greek drama
Dialogue: 0,0:00:08.20,0:00:13.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,if you take a play like Medea that's written 2300 years ago
Dialogue: 0,0:00:13.42,0:00:19.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it is about a woman who murders her children because of jalousy in relation to her husband
Dialogue: 0,0:00:19.66,0:00:23.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,if that is not a crime story, I don't know what a crime story is
Dialogue: 0,0:00:23.95,0:00:29.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the only difference is that there is no police officer in it
Dialogue: 0,0:00:29.12,0:00:33.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because in Greece at that time there was no police force
Dialogue: 0,0:00:33.12,0:00:39.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but I can assure you if they had had a police force, there would also have a policeman in the play
Dialogue: 0,0:00:39.98,0:00:46.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but this story uses the mirror of crime to look upon contradictions in society
Dialogue: 0,0:00:46.70,0:00:49.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that is what interests me.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:49.54,0:00:54.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Look at McBeth, take McBeth and put Richard Nixon in there:
Dialogue: 0,0:00:54.70,0:00:58.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you have the same story, in a way.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:58.82,0:01:05.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And then I can say that, yes, there are also pure crime fictions that inspire me.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:05.66,0:01:07.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,For example Sherlock Holmes.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:07.79,0:01:13.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Because many histories talk about English society,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:13.12,0:01:17.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,about hypocrisy, about many things
Dialogue: 0,0:01:17.06,0:01:23.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, I don't see any differences by writing crime fiction or another novel
Dialogue: 0,0:01:23.26,0:01:32.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think, I put up my cheek a little and say that crime fiction is one of the oldest literary genre that exists
Dialogue: 0,0:01:32.28,0:01:38.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it's not invented by Edgar Alan Poe, it's much older than that.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:38.58,0:01:45.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,All of my ancestors were musicians, they were playing in churches, organ players and
Dialogue: 0,0:01:45.66,0:01:55.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,my grandfather was a composer and I think that when I was young I also thought of myself as a musician
Dialogue: 0,0:01:55.58,0:02:04.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but I realised quite quickly that (I was playing the violin) I would never be as good as I would want to be
Dialogue: 0,0:02:04.95,0:02:14.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,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
Dialogue: 0,0:02:14.86,0:02:22.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But on the other hand you might say that music is a very essential part of writing
Dialogue: 0,0:02:22.29,0:02:33.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,as it is in painting, as it is in sculpturing, as it is in any other kind of art making, I would say
Dialogue: 0,0:02:33.12,0:02:38.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,My home was full of music but it was also full of books
Dialogue: 0,0:02:38.82,0:02:44.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I think I grew up in what you can call a really, really liberal family because
Dialogue: 0,0:02:44.66,0:02:51.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,first of all no one said anything if you were late at night reading
Dialogue: 0,0:02:51.82,0:02:55.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and secondly no one asked you what you read
Dialogue: 0,0:02:55.50,0:02:59.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and that is to me a good definition of what is a liberal family
Dialogue: 0,0:02:59.74,0:03:07.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think that the specific thing with my childhood was the fact that there was no mother around
Dialogue: 0,0:03:07.74,0:03:13.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,she had left the family so I grew up with my father and he was very occupied
Dialogue: 0,0:03:13.58,0:03:21.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but I can still remember at night sometimes I would tell him something about what I had read
Dialogue: 0,0:03:21.18,0:03:29.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and he was clever enough to take two minutes to listen to all the stupid things that I said
Dialogue: 0,0:03:29.06,0:03:31.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and about what I read
Dialogue: 0,0:03:31.54,0:03:38.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I think it is one of the lessons that I learned: you always have to listen to a child
Dialogue: 0,0:03:38.29,0:03:47.45,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think that the real artist is the child because if you remember back when you were 4, 5 or 6 years old,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:47.45,0:03:56.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you know, you had an enormous belief in the fact that you could transform a stone into a car,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:56.29,0:03:59.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,or a piece of wood into whatever
Dialogue: 0,0:03:59.82,0:04:03.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now, then you start school and you know what happens
Dialogue: 0,0:04:03.66,0:04:07.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,rationality takes over … maybe it is necessary
Dialogue: 0,0:04:07.98,0:04:14.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but later on when you maybe eventually would like to become an artist,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:14.66,0:04:20.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,then you have to reconquer the thing you had as a child
Dialogue: 0,0:04:20.50,0:04:27.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think that it has to do with the sort of connection back to the courage you had as a child
Dialogue: 0,0:04:27.74,0:04:32.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to ask the really, really difficult questions
Dialogue: 0,0:04:32.06,0:04:39.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I sometimes ask people when I am out talking:
Dialogue: 0,0:04:39.12,0:04:44.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,who do you think is my greatest idol? or icon?
Dialogue: 0,0:04:44.79,0:04:47.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and people guess this, and that, and I say
Dialogue: 0,0:04:47.82,0:04:52.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,no, I have photo, a small photo on my wall
Dialogue: 0,0:04:52.26,0:04:57.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the greatest idol is myself as a 12 year old
Dialogue: 0,0:04:57.74,0:05:02.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and when I watch this guy, this boy, this me at 12 years old,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:02.28,0:05:08.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think that at time I was at my best. I didn't see any limit to life.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:08.12,0:05:13.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I believed in imagination, in fantasy, and reality
Dialogue: 0,0:05:13.10,0:05:23.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I thought every mountain was possible to climb, every desert was possible to get through
Dialogue: 0,0:05:23.58,0:05:30.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,so I look at that boy and I try to imitate him, I try to be as brave and as good as he was.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:30.50,0:05:39.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The sensation of being able to put one word after another word making a sentence, and then making another sentence,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:39.12,0:05:44.45,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and then having a story … this is to me a miracle.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:44.45,0:05:47.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And this is the understanding of reading
Dialogue: 0,0:05:47.29,0:05:53.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and then obviously came the next miracle: that you realise that you could do that yourself.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:53.58,0:05:56.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It was the next miracle.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:56.58,0:06:07.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I still remember that the first thing I ever wrote was a verse on Robinson Crusoe on one page
Dialogue: 0,0:06:07.10,0:06:10.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I would give a finger to have that paper left
Dialogue: 0,0:06:10.20,0:06:19.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,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,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:19.06,0:06:25.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,still believe that Robinson Crusoe is the best novel ever written
Dialogue: 0,0:06:25.79,0:06:33.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,for a very simple reason: because Robinson is not alone on the island before Friday comes,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:33.66,0:06:39.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,he is alone on the island with the reader and that's important
Dialogue: 0,0:06:39.62,0:06:44.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you are on that island, with Robinson, … you help him out
Dialogue: 0,0:06:44.62,0:06:53.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that is a genius way of telling a story. I could never think of a plot better than that one
Dialogue: 0,0:06:53.04,0:06:58.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You could take out certain characters in certain books,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:58.34,0:07:03.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,take them out of the books and bring them with you as friends.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:03.37,0:07:07.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think one of the most important thing with art is that you get friends there
Dialogue: 0,0:07:07.62,0:07:10.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you could have a painting somewhere; when you see someone in a painting
Dialogue: 0,0:07:10.98,0:07:15.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you could take that person out of the painting and make that person a friend
Dialogue: 0,0:07:15.50,0:07:18.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that follows you in life.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:18.34,0:07:29.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Art to me is essential to see how the world looks, to understand the world by seeing how other people demonstrate it
Dialogue: 0,0:07:29.79,0:07:35.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it could be Francis Bacon or Goya or Ken Holtz (?)
Dialogue: 0,0:07:35.34,0:07:38.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Sometimes I can understand it immediately
Dialogue: 0,0:07:38.98,0:07:41.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,sometimes I don't understand it at all
Dialogue: 0,0:07:41.94,0:07:49.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and sometimes I don't want to understand it. I just want that feeling to be sucked into my universe and stay there
Dialogue: 0,0:07:49.98,0:07:58.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think real art, whether it is a painting or music, or whatever, always gives you a certain surprise
Dialogue: 0,0:07:58.54,0:08:03.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,if there is no surprise, I think it falls down.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:03.94,0:08:10.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I go down to the Prado museum in Madrid once a year, it is a sort of pilgrimage that I do,
Dialogue: 0,0:08:10.95,0:08:13.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I spend two days there.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:13.18,0:08:22.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And you know to walk the rooms full of paintings by Velasquez and then come into Goya, for example,
Dialogue: 0,0:08:22.12,0:08:30.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,well, it is not the same museum; it is not the same … it is like it is two different worlds
Dialogue: 0,0:08:30.62,0:08:35.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you could say they are both painters but there is something more they are different in,
Dialogue: 0,0:08:35.02,0:08:40.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,they tell me different stories about the human condition
Dialogue: 0,0:08:40.42,0:08:49.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think you cannot come closer than that to defining art: a good artist tells you A story of life.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:49.74,0:08:56.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Another artist tells you another story, a bad artist doesn't tell you anything.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:56.02,0:09:04.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,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
Dialogue: 0,0:09:04.42,0:09:10.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I think it is not good because we must be able to say that some art is better than other
Dialogue: 0,0:09:10.20,0:09:18.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,then we can discuss that: what do you mean by that?, I don't agree with you … but we can have the discussion.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:18.12,0:09:23.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Today I think that critics are very … they lack courage in a way.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:23.50,0:09:35.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think that if you look through history, in most art, the important kind of art, whether it is sculpture, books or whatever,
Dialogue: 0,0:09:35.62,0:09:41.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,there is some dimension of a dream, of a better society
Dialogue: 0,0:09:41.06,0:09:49.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and it's obvious to me and to most people that we are living in a terrible world today
Dialogue: 0,0:09:49.50,0:09:57.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the most terrible thing with the world today, it does so many problems, it's completely unnecessary
Dialogue: 0,0:09:57.29,0:10:02.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,let me just give one example: me as a writer
Dialogue: 0,0:10:02.29,0:10:13.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in year 2012, millions upon millions of children go out in life illiterate, they cannot read, they cannot write
Dialogue: 0,0:10:13.20,0:10:20.87,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and this is absolutely unnecessary. We could have eradicated illiteracy a long time ago
Dialogue: 0,0:10:20.87,0:10:25.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,if we really would have wanted to do it. But we don't do it,
Dialogue: 0,0:10:25.12,0:10:34.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,so these people are lost because still reading and writing and the little mathematics are the most important tools you have in life
Dialogue: 0,0:10:34.12,0:10:40.45,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I find this so disgusting, such a shame, that obviously I have to talk about it
Dialogue: 0,0:10:40.45,0:10:45.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,when people ask me can people buy your books, novels, in Mozambique
Dialogue: 0,0:10:45.37,0:10:52.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I say, "why?". There is only one book important here and that is the ABC book
Dialogue: 0,0:10:52.58,0:10:56.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,whether it is a computer program or a book, I don't care
Dialogue: 0,0:10:56.50,0:11:02.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but eradicate illiteracy before you talk about something else
Dialogue: 0,0:11:02.29,0:11:10.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and then we can go on and on, look on the word and most problems that kill people are unnecessary
Dialogue: 0,0:11:10.37,0:11:18.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I wouldn't understand how could I use my instrument without in one or another way talk about this
Dialogue: 0,0:11:18.06,0:11:21.87,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I could not understand myself
Dialogue: 0,0:11:21.87,0:11:30.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,As a writer I am an intellectual and as an intellectual, my responsibility is to react in a way
Dialogue: 0,0:11:30.12,0:11:32.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to what I see in society
Dialogue: 0,0:11:32.79,0:11:35.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that is the role of the intellectual
Dialogue: 0,0:11:35.04,0:11:39.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,at least if you have the idea of being a radical intellectual
Dialogue: 0,0:11:39.54,0:11:48.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,for me it goes back to the Enlightenment times of Diderot and Voltaire
Dialogue: 0,0:11:48.58,0:11:51.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the role of the intellectual
Dialogue: 0,0:11:51.82,0:11:56.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I believe this is right and that is why I act the way I act
Dialogue: 0,0:11:56.29,0:12:03.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I do write, I do write many various things but I also talk if necessary
Dialogue: 0,0:12:03.04,0:12:11.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I would say it is my relation to the ideal of the Enlightenment
Dialogue: 0,0:12:11.06,0:12:14.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I agree with that, with the fact that you should talk
Dialogue: 0,0:12:14.20,0:12:19.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I agree we are living in a very strange situation:
Dialogue: 0,0:12:19.54,0:12:23.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we have never seen such a flow of information
Dialogue: 0,0:12:23.42,0:12:26.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and never have people known so little
Dialogue: 0,0:12:26.54,0:12:32.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because everything has been done into fragments
Dialogue: 0,0:12:32.34,0:12:38.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,just look at TV news in Denmark and Sweden, short news,
Dialogue: 0,0:12:38.95,0:12:45.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the worst case if obviously the US where you don't understand anything of the news
Dialogue: 0,0:12:45.82,0:12:55.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,so that is obviously a risk and I agree also that words are misused very much today
Dialogue: 0,0:12:55.04,0:12:59.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,very much today
Dialogue: 0,0:12:59.20,0:13:08.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but I think that the word that you and I use will always be the most important in communications
Dialogue: 0,0:13:08.42,0:13:18.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,so I think there will always be a way of cleaning up the mess
Dialogue: 0,0:13:18.12,0:13:28.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but what is very difficult for me today is when I read these twitter and blogs
Dialogue: 0,0:13:28.02,0:13:35.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and it's a way of saying that simplifying things is the best thing
Dialogue: 0,0:13:35.06,0:13:41.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I say, no, complicate things … because the truth is always complicated in a way
Dialogue: 0,0:13:41.29,0:13:46.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,so I agree that something is happening with language but I'm not afraid that we will lose it
Dialogue: 0,0:13:46.58,0:13:50.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because if we lose it, we lose our humanity
Dialogue: 0,0:13:50.79,0:13:52.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,no, we won't do that
Dialogue: 0,0:13:52.62,0:14:02.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think there is also a need, among many readers to get long stories
Dialogue: 0,0:14:02.28,0:14:06.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,they are so fed up with these short fragments
Dialogue: 0,0:14:06.34,0:14:11.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,so, they want a long story. They want, in a way, Dickens
Dialogue: 0,0:14:11.26,0:14:17.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which I also do myself: if I find a good novel which is 400 pages, I'm happy
Dialogue: 0,0:14:17.58,0:14:22.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,if it is bad, it doesn't matter if it is 100 or 400 pages
Dialogue: 0,0:14:22.42,0:14:28.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,so, I'm not afraid even of the epic story will survive
Dialogue: 0,0:14:28.88,0:14:33.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I know of course that I'll never be able to do everything I want
Dialogue: 0,0:14:33.66,0:14:40.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,death will always come to disturb you, you never know when it comes
Dialogue: 0,0:14:40.94,0:14:49.100,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and in some very few moments I can feel a sort of desperation, even a sort of depression about that fright
Dialogue: 0,0:14:49.100,0:15:01.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but that is life. If you listen for example to the string quartets that Beethoven wrote when he was old,
Dialogue: 0,0:15:01.76,0:15:06.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,they are presenting you with something completely new in his music
Dialogue: 0,0:15:06.46,0:15:14.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it is like he had ..., when he started to become old, he didn't give a shit about anything
Dialogue: 0,0:15:14.38,0:15:22.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,he had nothing to lose so he started to write some very, very new music that the world had never heard before
Dialogue: 0,0:15:22.35,0:15:26.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that is his latest string quartets
Dialogue: 0,0:15:26.06,0:15:34.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,so, it might be that things happen when you get older that give you a sort of new freedom,
Dialogue: 0,0:15:34.54,0:15:38.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you don't know that so, this is what I hope for
Dialogue: 0,0:15:38.46,0:15:48.51,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to me, obviously, life has meaning when I can sit down and try to formulate something
Dialogue: 0,0:15:48.51,0:15:54.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because whatever you do, is trying, you're trying … you never know when you're gonna succeed or not,
Dialogue: 0,0:15:54.96,0:15:57.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but you are trying to do something
Dialogue: 0,0:15:57.65,0:16:05.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that is the closest I can come to a meaning of life in the creativity
Dialogue: 0,0:16:05.12,0:16:11.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I don't think I have a more intelligent answer than that.