All language subtitles for Masterclass Salman Rushdie Teaches Storytelling and Writing - 04.Opening Lines With Power

[MUSIC PLAYING]

SALMAN RUSHDIE: "At
the precise instant

of India's arrival
at independence,

I tumbled forth into the world.

There were gasps.

And, outside the window,
fireworks and crowds.

A few seconds later, my
father broke his big toe;

but his accident
was a mere trifle

when set beside what had
befallen me in that united

moment, because thanks
to the occult tyrannies

of those blandly saluting
clocks I had been mysteriously

of those blandly saluting
clocks I had been mysteriously

handcuffed to history,
my destinies indissolubly

chained to those of my country.

For the next three decades,
there was to be no escape."

Very early in the book,
you need to, so to speak,

make a contract with the reader.

You have to say
to the reader, I'm

going to tell you
this kind of story.

And then, if they like that
idea, they'll stick with you.

And then, if they like that
idea, they'll stick with you.

You know, I think
the worst thing

you can do as a
writer is to make

the reader a kind of promise
about the sort of story

you're going to tell them
and then not tell them

that kind of story--

break the contract
with the reader.

That's very, very
annoying as a reader.

If the book is going
to be surrealistic--

if it's going to have elements
of fantasy, et cetera--

they need to be
there to begin with.

they need to be
there to begin with.

If you write what looks
like a realist novel,

and suddenly on page 150 a
spaceship lands from Mars,

it's going to annoy people.

Because you haven't set
up that expectation.

Unless you're doing it
deliberately for shock value--

you know, to create
a world that appears

to be everyday and
humdrum and normal,

and then something
really shocking

happens in that world--

like a spaceship
landing from Mars.

That works.

But then that's because
you know that you're

But then that's because
you know that you're

doing it to shock people.

On the whole, start
as you mean to go on.

You know, so if you're going
to write a realistic novel--

if you're going
to write a novel,

a love story, if
you're going to write

a thriller, whatever
you're doing,

start as you mean to go on.

The best explanation of the
power of the opening sentence

that I heard was--

I once went to a book reading
by the author Joseph Heller,

I once went to a book reading
by the author Joseph Heller,

the author of "Catch-22"
and other books.

And he said that most of
the books he had written

had grown out of a
single sentence--

that he had written a
sentence and he immediately

saw that that sentence gave
him another couple of hundred

of sentences, that
that sentence opened

the gateway through which the
whole storyline could follow.

the gateway through which the
whole storyline could follow.

It's like a kind of
open sesame, you know?

It's like the key
that unlocks the door,

and then the book flows from it.

The way to arrive at
an opening sentence--

I mean, to try and, you
know, find your way to it

as a-- as a practice exercises--

is to think, what is
this book actually about?

And I don't mean so
much in terms of story.

I mean, what kind of book is it?

I mean, what kind of book is it?

You know, is it a comedy?

Is it a horror story?

Is it a thriller?

Is it a love story?

Is it an epic?

Is it a surreal novel?

What is it?

And whatever it is that
your novel is going to be,

your opening sentence should
in some way express that--

in some way say that, hello,
I'm this kind of story--

in some way say that, hello,
I'm this kind of story--

read me.

I spend a lot of
time making sure

that I have the first
sentence that I want.

And I think what
I would say to you

is that it needs to be something
which serves two purposes.

One is personal to
you, the author--

which is, that it shows
you how to write the book.

which is, that it shows
you how to write the book.

You know, it opens the
doorway into the book.

And the other is
for the reader--

that it says something which
makes them want to read on.

I think most writers agonize a
little bit about their opening

sentences, and in my experience,
you know when you've got it.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I do think opening sentences
are unusually important.

I do think opening sentences
are unusually important.

Sometimes the opening sentence
immediately plunges you

into the reality of the book.

You know, so the opening
sentence of Toni Morrison's

"Beloved--" "124 was spiteful."

And you immediately
realize that you're

being told that this house
in which the action is

taking place has a kind
of life of its own.

And it puts you into
something which, actually,

as it turns out, is a kind of
ghost story as it develops.

as it turns out, is a kind of
ghost story as it develops.

It doesn't even have to
be a flashy sentence.

You know, it can be a
very simple sentence.

Sometimes the opening
sentence can be quite grand--

"All happy families
are alike," says

the opening sentence of "Anna
Karenina," "unhappy families

are unhappy in their own way."

It's a-- it's a great Tolstoyan
assertion, which maybe you

It's a-- it's a great Tolstoyan
assertion, which maybe you

disagree with.

You know, maybe not all
happy families are alike,

but Tolstoy says they are.

But what he tells
us is that he's

going to tell us the story of
a particular unhappy family

that's unhappy in a certain way.

So it sets up a grand
book, which he then

proceeds to write.

Sometimes the first sentence
is part of a longer passage.

Like, for example, in
Dickens' "Tale of Two Cities,"

Like, for example, in
Dickens' "Tale of Two Cities,"

the opening paragraph, really,
is a series of sentences

which contradict themselves.

"It was the best of times.

It was the worst of times."

You know, and that
sentence structure

is repeated a number of times.

But what it does is to
very, very powerfully evoke

the mood of the book,
which is the time

of the French Revolution.

When you have the sentence
that those that double thing

When you have the sentence
that those that double thing

of giving you permission to go
on in some kind of fluent way

and being a kind of
hook for the reader,

I mean, then you've got it.

And then you proceed.

When I was writing my book which
was written for my son, "Haroun

and the Sea of Stories,"
which is a kind of fairy tale.

But it's a fairy tale
about serious things.

But it's a fairy tale
about serious things.

And I wanted it to be
accessible to grown-ups as well

as to younger readers.

I wanted, if I could do it,
to write a book that that--

my son was 11, 12
years old at the time--

would be able to read and get an
11, 12-year-old kid's pleasure

from it.

And I wanted an adult to be
able to read it and in a way

read it in a different way.

You know, and for me, the
real difficulty of that book

You know, and for me, the
real difficulty of that book

was tone of voice.

I had started writing it,
and it seemed too childish.

And I would try writing
it in a different way,

and it seemed too adult.
And it was very hard

for me to find where
to pitch the book.

And then one day I wrote
the opening sentence.

I remember writing
that and thinking, OK!

I know what to do.

You know, it just
set the tone of voice

from which the whole
book proceeded.

And until I wrote
those two sentences,

I really didn't know
how to write the book.

I really didn't know
how to write the book.

I had made a number
of false starts.

But that gave me the
permission to write.

This is my second-published
novel-- my novel,

"Midnight's Children," a
book about the generation

of children that were born at
the time of the independence

of children that were born at
the time of the independence

of India.

"I was born in the city of
Bombay once upon a time.

No, that won't do, there's no
getting away from the date--

I was born in Doctor
Narlikar's nursing

home on August the 15th, 1947.

And the time?

The time matters, too.

Well then-- at night.

No, it's important
to be more.woke

on the stroke of midnight,
as a matter of fact.

on the stroke of midnight,
as a matter of fact.

Clock-hands joined palms in
respectful greeting as I came.

Oh, spell it out, spell it
out-- at the precise instant

of India's arrival
at independence,

I tumbled forth into the word."

He has a kind of almost
stammering beginning where

he doesn't finish sentences.

he doesn't finish sentences.

And it's because he's--

in a way, the thing
he's going to say

is so big that he,
in a way, almost

doesn't have the
courage to say it.

You know?

And then he finds the
courage to say it,

and then it pours out of him
and becomes much more fluid.

And so, in a way, he's finding
his starting point, too.

And his starting point--

it is-- what can I say?

It's a little broken
and uncertain.

And then at a certain point,
he just takes a deep breath.

He says "spell it
out, spell it out."

and at that point, he opens
his heart to the story.

And boom!

Out it comes, and
then we're off.

There was a particular day when
I wrote what essentially still

There was a particular day when
I wrote what essentially still

is that opening paragraph,
and immediately, I

had a feeling of
great excitement.

Because I felt that
I had managed finally

to find the voice and
language of the book.

And I've always said to myself--

told myself that was the
day I became a writer.

Because it was the first time
that I had written something

anywhere near as good as that.

And it showed me-- it opened
the door into the book--

And it showed me-- it opened
the door into the book--

and the book then poured out.