Original subtitles

SALMAN RUSHDIE: I think this is at the heart

of the whole of literature, which

is the one thing that is the great constant is human nature.

In whatever age, in whatever country,

human beings are the same.

We have the same longings.

We have the same flaws.

We have the same ambitions.

And I think one of the reasons why

we can read with pleasure literature written hundreds

of years ago or written in a country

of years ago or written in a country

that we have no idea about is because human nature is there.

If the story feels truthful about human beings,

then it speaks to us.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

If you're going to build a big car,

you should put a big engine in it, you know.

And the big engine is what makes the car a pleasure, you know.

And the big engine is what makes the car a pleasure, you know.

A big car with an inadequate engine

is a kind of disappointment.

So-- so the engine for me has always been story.

And so I've always tried to put that--

that kind of vroom-vroom factor, you know,

what drives the book at the center of it

whatever else it may or may not be doing.

Without conflict, it's hard to have--

it's hard to have drama.

it's hard to have drama.

I mean, one of the things--

famous lines by-- about literature the French writer

Henry de Montherlant said about happiness

that it's almost impossible to write about.

He said-- he said, happiness writes

in white ink on a white page.

You know, it doesn't show up.

If people are happy, there's no story, you know.

He-- these people are happy, we are told.

The end, you know, because what else is there to say?

The hardest thing I think of all is to write about happiness.

The hardest thing I think of all is to write about happiness.

In order to get started writing on a project,

there are I consider six essential questions

that you need to answer.

The first question is, whose story are you telling?

You need to be clear about that because a novel is

a long piece of work.

There'll be characters coming in and out, et cetera.

There'll be characters coming in and out, et cetera.

You really need to know what is through line.

It could be two people.

It doesn't have to be one person.

But you need to be quite clear about that.

And then the most obvious question is, what's the story?

And again, that-- different writers answer that question

differently, you know.

Some writers need to have a very, very clear sense

of the storyline from beginning to end

before they can start work.

Other writers are different.

Other writers are different.

They will have a general sense of the story.

They'll know that the character needs to go from here

and end up there.

When I started writing, I really needed

to know a lot about the character, what the story is.

I needed to have that sketched out.

I needed to have notes and architecture, plans, and so on.

And-- and now I find--

I mean, I still have some sense of all those things.

But it's much more that I every day try and discover the story.

But it's much more that I every day try and discover the story.

If you compare it to music, it's like the difference

between composing a symphony and playing jazz.

With a symphony, everything is written down in full notation,

you know.

And there it is.

The musicians have to just interpret that.

With jazz, of course, there's a general sense

of-- of the shape.

But there's an enormous amount of room for improvisation

and play in the middle of that.

And the third question is, why are you telling the story?

And the third question is, why are you telling the story?

You can answer that personally because it's

to do with something in your life that--

that motivates you to tell the story.

You can answer it politically, you know,

that there's some subject, you know,

external to your own life that you want to get into.

So there's many ways to answer it.

But you should know why you're telling the story.

Otherwise-- otherwise, why bother to tell it?

Then there's questions of time and place.

Then there's questions of time and place.

There's-- there's a when question and a where question.

Obviously, the most natural thing

in a way for somebody starting out to write a book

is to set it in the time with which they're

most familiar, which is to say the present, you know.

Although, a lot of books, particularly first novels,

including-- including mine, take place in childhood,

but you need to be clear about the time.

Because if that time is to be vivid to the reader,

Because if that time is to be vivid to the reader,

then you need to be able to create that time on the page,

you know, that--

I mean, the slang of 40 years ago,

30 years ago is not the slang of today.

The things people see, you know, the commercials on television,

the billboards in the street, the daily look

and sound of the city, you know, it's not the same.

And then where is just the question of place.

And depending on what kind of book it is, you know, that--

if it's a science fiction story, that place

could be anywhere in the universe.

could be anywhere in the universe.

But that idea of location for me has always

been absolutely crucial as a writer.

But I find that I can't get the wheels turning properly

until I know what the ground is under the wheels, you know.

So-- so I have to make the place decision very early.

And the sixth question is actually--

it's the hardest question.

Sixth question is, how are you going to tell the story?

And this is a matter of form and language.

I mean, you can think of books where there's almost no story.

I mean, you can think of books where there's almost no story.

And there are some very great novels.

You think of James Joyce's "Ulysses."

All that happens is a man walks around Dublin for a day running

into people here and there while his wife is being

unfaithful to him back home.

There's no great event.

It's just that.

But because the language is so extraordinary,

the telling of it is so exceptional,

we think of it as one of the greatest novels ever written.

we think of it as one of the greatest novels ever written.

So the how question--

you can mess up a good idea by getting the how question wrong,

you know.

And in my early career before I published

anything worth reading really, I made those mistakes, you know.

I had ideas, which, in retrospect, looking back,

if I had written them differently,

if I had written them more straightforwardly,

they would have been better because I

tried to fool around and be fancy with it, you know.

tried to fool around and be fancy with it, you know.

I messed it up.

But those six questions, the six questions are--

if you have answers to that, you know, whose story you're

telling, what's the story, why are you telling it,

when is it set, where does it take place,

and how are you going to tell it,

if you know how to answer those questions,

you know how to write it.

And you can start.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

You could write yourself letters about the book as if you were--

You could write yourself letters about the book as if you were--

as if you were talking to a friend, you know.

And your friend is saying to you,

what are you writing about?

What you want to-- what do you want to write about?

You know, because if we're actually talking to people,

and we want them to-- to listen to what we are telling them,

you know, we have to try and be as interesting as we can.

Otherwise, they're going to say, OK, well,

I've had enough of that.

So that's an interesting way of seeing

if you've got the story into some kind of shape.

Just imagine you telling it to, somebody

Just imagine you telling it to, somebody

yourself telling it to somebody orally.

Choose a friend in your mind, you know.

And talk to them about it.

And you could do that on paper, you know.

And then see what you think of it.

See if you think you've got something that people will

be interested to listen to.