Original subtitles

[MUSIC PLAYING]

SALMAN RUSHDIE: We are what one could call the storytelling

SALMAN RUSHDIE: We are what one could call the storytelling

animal.

We are the only creature on the Earth

that does this unusual thing of telling each other stories

in order to try and understand the kind of creature

that we are.

When a child is born, of course, the first thing

the child requires is nourishment

and safety and love.

When those things are met, almost the next thing

that the child asks for is tell me a story.

Even when I was a young boy, I said I want to be a writer.

I had no plan B. So it's been one of my great fortunes

in life to be able to do the thing which

was the only thing I ever wanted to do

MAN: Ladies and gentlemen, Salman Rushdie.

[APPLAUSE]

MAN: The winner of this year's Booker Prize is Salman Rushdie.

[APPLAUSE]

MAN: Winner of PEN/Allen Lifetime Achievement Award.

WOMAN: Sir Salman Rushdie was knighted today.

WOMAN: Winner of the Best of the Booker.

WOMAN: Winner of the Best of the Booker.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

SALMAN RUSHDIE: I've been doing this a long time.

I published my first book in 1975.

So I have a bit of a track record here, 20 books.

I hope I've learned something along the way.

If that can be communicated, then it's

If that can be communicated, then it's

worth doing, you know, because maybe it'll

just give you some shortcuts, which

I had to find out the hard way.

A lot of the skill of the writer comes

from your understanding of who you are

and what you need to say to the world.

I think my way of doing things is different from others

because it draws on cultures from around the world

from my country of origin, which is India,

through Britain to the United States.

through Britain to the United States.

I've spent my life in those three countries.

And it gives me an international perspective,

which I hope will be different than other people.

I would say whoever you are tuning in,

you must be somebody for whom books are important.

Many writers, I would say most writers,

are born out of readers.

If you want to make that transition

from one side of the page to the other

from being the reader to being the author,

then maybe this will give you some signposts

then maybe this will give you some signposts

of how to make that journey.

I'm really excited to be here to do this

because I felt that I was being given the opportunity

to do something I've never done before,

which is to talk about language, to talk about character,

to talk about form, to talk about everything

there is in the art of being a writer.

I think the thing that I would just like to say

is first of all a warning and secondly an encouragement.

The warning is that it doesn't come easily.

The warning is that it doesn't come easily.

It took me 12 or 13 years of not being successful before I

was at all successful.

So you have to have a kind of absolute determination

and drive that this is who you want

to be and to hold to that in spite of disappointments

and reverses.

So that's-- that's the warning.

The joy is that when you do write something good,

it's an incredible exhilaration, you know.

it's an incredible exhilaration, you know.

You really feel that you have, first of all,

done something for yourself.

You've done the, you know, the gift of self-expression.

If you have managed to do that, then it makes you happy.

It should make you proud.

I hope it will make you proud.

And-- and the joy of the life of a writer I think

is not to be underestimated.

I'm Salman Rushdie, and this is my MasterClass.

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