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SALMAN RUSHDIE: I think
this is at the heart

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of the whole of
literature, which

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is the one thing that is the
great constant is human nature.

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In whatever age, in
whatever country,

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human beings are the same.

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We have the same longings.

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We have the same flaws.

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We have the same ambitions.

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And I think one
of the reasons why

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we can read with pleasure
literature written hundreds

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of years ago or
written in a country

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of years ago or
written in a country

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that we have no idea about is
because human nature is there.

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If the story feels truthful
about human beings,

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then it speaks to us.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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If you're going to
build a big car,

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you should put a big
engine in it, you know.

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And the big engine is what makes
the car a pleasure, you know.

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And the big engine is what makes
the car a pleasure, you know.

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A big car with an
inadequate engine

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is a kind of disappointment.

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So-- so the engine for
me has always been story.

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And so I've always
tried to put that--

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that kind of vroom-vroom
factor, you know,

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what drives the book
at the center of it

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whatever else it may
or may not be doing.

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Without conflict,
it's hard to have--

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it's hard to have drama.

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it's hard to have drama.

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I mean, one of the things--

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famous lines by-- about
literature the French writer

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Henry de Montherlant
said about happiness

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that it's almost
impossible to write about.

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He said-- he said,
happiness writes

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in white ink on a white page.

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You know, it doesn't show up.

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If people are happy,
there's no story, you know.

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He-- these people are
happy, we are told.

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The end, you know, because
what else is there to say?

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The hardest thing I think of
all is to write about happiness.

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The hardest thing I think of
all is to write about happiness.

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In order to get started
writing on a project,

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there are I consider
six essential questions

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that you need to answer.

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The first question is,
whose story are you telling?

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You need to be clear about
that because a novel is

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a long piece of work.

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There'll be characters
coming in and out, et cetera.

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There'll be characters
coming in and out, et cetera.

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You really need to know
what is through line.

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It could be two people.

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It doesn't have
to be one person.

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But you need to be
quite clear about that.

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And then the most obvious
question is, what's the story?

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And again, that-- different
writers answer that question

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differently, you know.

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Some writers need to have
a very, very clear sense

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of the storyline
from beginning to end

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before they can start work.

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Other writers are different.

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Other writers are different.

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They will have a general
sense of the story.

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They'll know that the
character needs to go from here

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and end up there.

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When I started writing,
I really needed

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to know a lot about the
character, what the story is.

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I needed to have
that sketched out.

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I needed to have notes and
architecture, plans, and so on.

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And-- and now I find--

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I mean, I still have some
sense of all those things.

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But it's much more that I every
day try and discover the story.

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But it's much more that I every
day try and discover the story.

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If you compare it to music,
it's like the difference

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between composing a
symphony and playing jazz.

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With a symphony, everything is
written down in full notation,

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you know.

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And there it is.

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The musicians have to
just interpret that.

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With jazz, of course,
there's a general sense

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of-- of the shape.

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But there's an enormous amount
of room for improvisation

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and play in the middle of that.

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And the third question is,
why are you telling the story?

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And the third question is,
why are you telling the story?

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You can answer that
personally because it's

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to do with something
in your life that--

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that motivates you
to tell the story.

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You can answer it
politically, you know,

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that there's some
subject, you know,

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external to your own life
that you want to get into.

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So there's many
ways to answer it.

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But you should know why
you're telling the story.

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Otherwise-- otherwise,
why bother to tell it?

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Then there's questions
of time and place.

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Then there's questions
of time and place.

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There's-- there's a when
question and a where question.

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Obviously, the
most natural thing

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in a way for somebody
starting out to write a book

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is to set it in the
time with which they're

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most familiar, which is to
say the present, you know.

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Although, a lot of books,
particularly first novels,

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including-- including mine,
take place in childhood,

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but you need to be
clear about the time.

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Because if that time is
to be vivid to the reader,

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Because if that time is
to be vivid to the reader,

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then you need to be able to
create that time on the page,

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you know, that--

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I mean, the slang
of 40 years ago,

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30 years ago is not
the slang of today.

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The things people see, you know,
the commercials on television,

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the billboards in the
street, the daily look

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and sound of the city, you
know, it's not the same.

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And then where is just
the question of place.

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And depending on what kind of
book it is, you know, that--

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if it's a science
fiction story, that place

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could be anywhere
in the universe.

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could be anywhere
in the universe.

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But that idea of location
for me has always

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been absolutely
crucial as a writer.

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But I find that I can't get
the wheels turning properly

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until I know what the ground
is under the wheels, you know.

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So-- so I have to make the
place decision very early.

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And the sixth
question is actually--

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it's the hardest question.

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Sixth question is, how are
you going to tell the story?

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And this is a matter
of form and language.

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I mean, you can think of books
where there's almost no story.

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I mean, you can think of books
where there's almost no story.

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And there are some
very great novels.

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You think of James
Joyce's "Ulysses."

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All that happens is a man walks
around Dublin for a day running

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into people here and there
while his wife is being

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unfaithful to him back home.

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There's no great event.

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It's just that.

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But because the language
is so extraordinary,

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the telling of it
is so exceptional,

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we think of it as one of the
greatest novels ever written.

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we think of it as one of the
greatest novels ever written.

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So the how question--

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you can mess up a good idea by
getting the how question wrong,

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you know.

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And in my early career
before I published

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anything worth reading really,
I made those mistakes, you know.

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I had ideas, which, in
retrospect, looking back,

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if I had written
them differently,

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if I had written them
more straightforwardly,

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they would have been
better because I

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tried to fool around and
be fancy with it, you know.

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tried to fool around and
be fancy with it, you know.

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I messed it up.

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But those six questions,
the six questions are--

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if you have answers to that,
you know, whose story you're

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telling, what's the story,
why are you telling it,

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when is it set, where
does it take place,

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and how are you
going to tell it,

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if you know how to
answer those questions,

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you know how to write it.

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And you can start.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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You could write yourself letters
about the book as if you were--

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You could write yourself letters
about the book as if you were--

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as if you were talking
to a friend, you know.

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And your friend
is saying to you,

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what are you writing about?

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What you want to-- what do
you want to write about?

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You know, because if we're
actually talking to people,

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and we want them to-- to listen
to what we are telling them,

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you know, we have to try and
be as interesting as we can.

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Otherwise, they're
going to say, OK, well,

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I've had enough of that.

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So that's an interesting
way of seeing

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if you've got the story
into some kind of shape.

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Just imagine you
telling it to, somebody

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Just imagine you
telling it to, somebody

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yourself telling it
to somebody orally.

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Choose a friend in
your mind, you know.

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And talk to them about it.

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And you could do that
on paper, you know.

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And then see what
you think of it.

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See if you think you've got
something that people will

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be interested to listen to.