All language subtitles for Masterclass Salman Rushdie Teaches Storytelling and Writing - 01.Meet Your Instructor

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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.

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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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