On someone just saying yes
In order to say yes to one thing, you have to say no to another. That’s how time is protected. That’s how the art gets made. But it starts with you, saying yes to yourself, for yourself.
On models, liberators and guides
On the basis that you’re supposed to write the books you want to read, that’s precisely what I’m setting about doing.
On a historical novel of the past and another one of the future
One of the big surprises from the Enzo Mari exhibition was discovering the number of different ways Mari had ventured into the world of literature.
On the reasons for new projects
On a recent trip to London, we finally made it to the Design Museum so we could catch the exhibition of work by the Italian design legend Enzo Mari.
On writing by hand
The computer I’m writing on is not in the best of health today — it’s just come back from a service to investigate a defective trackpad, and is now functioning even worse than it was before.
On understanding what someone is trying to do
When someone asks me what the last good piece of theatre I saw was, I often struggle to come up with an answer. But more than that, I often catch myself quite unnecessarily jumping in to say what I’ve seen that I didn’t like. When I get started on that, I often find it difficult to shut myself up again.
On working in a language that is not your first language
It can be hard enough sometimes to find the right words to express yourself in your primary language - and it takes even more energy and courage to try doing it in a language you may have learned alongside, or much later in life than, acquiring your first.
On Japanese projects of the past, and on whose stories we can tell
I’ve drawn on Japanese literature and culture a few times over the years, and I’ve been asking myself whether I would, could or should do those projects now in the same way I did them then.
On plays that never get produced
Even though theatre was where I first got properly started as a writer, and even though theatre has been where my career has focused for the last twenty years, I stopped referring to myself as a playwright long ago.
On more than one kind of input
It seems fairly commonly accepted that if an artist - or more specifically, a writer - is to produce good output, they must make sure to absorb good input as well. By which is usually meant, if you want to be a writer who writes, you also need to be a writer who reads. This once led me to make a terrible mistake when I was teaching, and I have gone to great pains to ensure I never made it again.
