Anticipating the arrival of Michael Cunningham, The Hours' Pulitizer Prize winning scribe, Books Editor Malavika Prabhu took part in a conference call with the man himself a couple short weeks ago. Here's what he had to say for himself:
Why do you write?
Michael Cunningham: That's the biggest of all questions, isn't it? And you know, I don't have a very good answer for it. Never since I was 18 years old have I lost my interest in it; it's the one thing in the world where you attempt to create something like life on paper and it never bores me.
What was the inspiration for The Hours and where did you get the idea for your characters?
The inspiration for the novel started when I was in high school, where I was kind of like a stoner, a skateboard kid. I wasn't exactly opposed to books - I just wasn't good at them.
One day when I was 15, I was nattering away to this older girl who I was desperately in love with, and she looked at me and said in a tone not as unkindly meant as it sounds, "Have you ever thought of being less stupid?" And I had thought about being less stupid, and I was pretty much happy with the stupid that I was. She said, "Read a book, read Eliot, read Woolf." So I tried to read Mrs. Dalloway, but I had no idea what it was about. I could see the beauty and complexity and music of Virginia Woolf's language, which was a revelation to me. I had not understood that you could do that with language, with ink and paper. I remember thinking that she did with language what Jimi Hendrix does with a guitar. No book had ever mattered to me before, and it made me into a reader and then ultimately a writer.
As years went by, and I began to try to be a writer, I found that there are so many things you're expected to write a novel abou - the first time you fell in love, the fact that your father was cranky and an alcoholic - but to write a novel about the profound and transforming experience of writing a book, that you're not supposed to do because that's academic and dry and who wants to read a book about reading a book? But I thought I might want to read a book about reading a book.
David Hare adapted your novel. Are you satisfied with the adaptation?
I'm hugely satisfied. I don't have that thing that a lot of novelists have with the "sacred text," as if a book of mine were some sort of relic.... The movie is very close to the book, but it's also a work of art unto itself. David managed the transition beautifully and managed to preserve something that I love in Woolf- the sense of optimism that can survive all situations, which is really the only kind of optimism I trust.
What is the most difficult thing you struggle with as a writer?
The solitude. I'm just alone here in my studio everyday sitting alone with a figment of my imagination. There's no secretary to flirt with- it's just me, which is part of why I live in New York. When I'm done writing for the day I can run out in the street where there are people singing arias with their hair on fire and everybody in the world is out in the street.
As a writer, when you finish a book you're saying, "This is the best I could do," to the world. I'm not holding back, I'm not not trying to the best of my ability - this is it. It's easy to feel terrified and embarrassed and small in the face of what you're trying to do... You always have a greater book in mind, even if you write a pretty good book, and that's hard.
How was it attending the Golden Globes for The Hours?
I was right there. The Globes are fun because everyone's a movie star, and the after parties are great. I ended up in a strip club dancing with Nicole and Jude Law. That's my idea of a good time.
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