A connection between poetry and blindness is a classical trope. Justin Cartwright More Quotes by Justin Cartwright More Quotes From Justin Cartwright When Doris Lessing won the Nobel Prize for Literature at the age of 88, she was the oldest person ever to receive the prize and one of only 11 female winners in its history. Her award was the end of a very long journey from a remote farm in Rhodesia to a banquet at Stockholm's Stadshus, the grand city hall in Stockholm. Justin Cartwright journey age long history The working-class Africans are not doing very well, and one of the problems is their education is so shocking. It is routinely said it is a result of apartheid. Deliberately, black people were not allowed to know too much. They could read and write a bit to be useful, but that's about it. Justin Cartwright problems black education people My own interest in Kafka's letter came about when I was writing an article on Peter Ginz, the boy novelist held in Terezin, not far from Prague, and exterminated in Auschwitz by the Nazis. The Ginz family were from more or less the same milieu as the Kafkas. Justin Cartwright boy my-own family writing In his later years, Ramakrishna took up residence at the Dakshineswar Kali Temple, from where his radiance extended far, even beyond his death in 1886. Justin Cartwright beyond temple death years I grew up reading Updike. I remember being alarmed to find that he had published short stories by the time he was 22. I think 'Pigeon Feathers' was the first collection of stories I read. Only much later did I discover his non-fiction reviewing and art criticism. Justin Cartwright reading time remember art We authors certainly don't know what is going to happen to our books. Are they going to disappear into the ether, following music downloads, or are ebooks going to open up a whole new world of readers? And how much are we being paid per copy? We haven't a clue. Justin Cartwright new know music world 'Point Omega' starts in an art gallery, where an unnamed man is watching, day after day, a 24-hour version of 'Psycho,' an installation that was created by the Scottish artist, Douglas Gordon. In it, the events and the minutiae of Hitchcock's film are painfully slowly reproduced; the watcher is obsessed with the detail revealed. Justin Cartwright day man psycho art I thought I'd write a massive postmodern novel about Richard the Lionheart and Robin Hood, but it turns out they couldn't have met because the first mention of Robin Hood appears 60 years after Richard died. Justin Cartwright because thought hood years You can't believe anything that's written in an historical novel, and yet the author's job is always to create a believable world that readers can enter. It's especially so, I think, for writers of historical fiction. Justin Cartwright job you believe world I'm not an especially male novelist, but I think men are better at writing about men, and the same is true for women. Reading Saul Bellow is a revelation, but he can't write women. There are exceptions, like Marilynne Robinson's 'Gilead,' but generally, I think it's true. Justin Cartwright think women reading men Historians and journalists always have agendas, but if I want to find out what's going on in South Africa, I read Nadine Gordimer or John Coetzee because they offer novelistic truth. Justin Cartwright africa always truth want The book that meant most to me was 'The Wind in the Willows.' It sounds ridiculous, but that was my vision of England. Justin Cartwright me vision wind book My brother and I were brought up sort of thinking that we were English. I remember hearing the poet Roy Campbell on the radio and being quite shocked that he had a South African accent. I didn't know there were any South African poets. Justin Cartwright know brother remember thinking Someone once pointed out that there are quite a lot of animals in my books, and I'm sure that is something to do with 'The Wind in the Willows.' I must have picked up a rather anthropomorphic view of them. Justin Cartwright animals view someone wind I always assumed I could never make a living out of literary fiction, and I was right. When I did try, it took four years before being published. Justin Cartwright never try always living Consciousness - that, to me, is the theme of the modern novel. Justin Cartwright me theme consciousness novel I write from what I take to be the realist's point of view, looking at life as it really is - or the way I see it to be. Justin Cartwright looking view life way So often in English fiction, people are either upper-class twits, or else they're knockabouts, less than human. Justin Cartwright english than human people It's true that all my novels have been versions of myself to some degree. Justin Cartwright degree true some myself A good novel is something that challenges perception, that allows you to see the world anew through a different point of view - something that genre fiction doesn't do, although it sells more because it doesn't disturb people's innate sense of what a novel should be about. Often, people want characters to be nice, for example. Justin Cartwright good you challenges people
