Original subtitles

[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.