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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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SALMAN RUSHDIE: I would say that
every writer that is any good,

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is that they have sharp
observational powers.

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And those can be developed.

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If you set yourself
the task of noticing,

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it's amazing how much
you will begin to notice.

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You should have a sharp eye.

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You should have a sharp eye.

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You should be able
to look at the world.

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And you should be
a good noticer.

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You know, you should try to
notice things wherever you go.

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What is happening on
this street, you know?

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It may mean looking
away from the action.

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You know, look at the
corners of the vision.

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What's happening in
the corner of your eye,

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not straight ahead?

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When we normally just
walk down the street,

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we can be lost in our thoughts.

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We can be on the
phone to somebody.

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We can be on the
phone to somebody.

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We can be distracted.

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But if you set yourself the task
of noticing when you walk down

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the street, you'll
actually be surprised

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by how much you do notice,
that all this is going on.

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Oh, I never looked
at that before.

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So that's one thing.

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One thing is to try and train
your eye to look at the world

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and to notice it.

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The second thing is--
is to hear the world.

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You know, it's to
develop your ear.

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And for example,
how do people talk?

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And for example,
how do people talk?

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That's going to be
very useful to you

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when you're writing dialogue.

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If you actually--
and these days,

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actually, it's got easier.

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Because everybody's walking
down the street talking

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to themselves, because they got
a phone in their ear, you know.

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And they're talking
to themselves

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as if nobody's listening.

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It's very good to
try and sharpen

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your hearing in
terms of listening

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to-- listening to the world.

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Listening to how people speak.

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Listening to the natural world.

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There's a wonderful
passage in Calvino

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There's a wonderful
passage in Calvino

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where one of his
characters, Mr. Palomar,

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is just sitting in a
chair in his garden

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listening to the birds.

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And he begins to hear rhythms in
the way the birds are tweeting.

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And he starts
trying to write down

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the rhythms of the birds, and--

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just by listening.

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And it's a beautiful passage.

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So when you get good
at this, or if you

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So when you get good
at this, or if you

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are naturally good at
it, your ear will hear--

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you'll start hearing
things which are revealing

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about people, you know.

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And it's-- you know, if
you have a notebook--

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I mean, always have
a notebook, you know.

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Always have something
to write something.

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I mean, I've used my--

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if I think of something,
or I hear or see something,

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I just make a note in my
phone, and I transfer it later.

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There are things which you hear
which make you think things.

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And if you don't write
them down at that moment,

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you will never remember
them ever again.

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you will never remember
them ever again.

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You know, so you have to
form the habit of making

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a record of your observations.

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Everything you do every day
can help you sharpen your eye,

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if you-- if you are
conscious of the fact

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that you're trying
to really look.

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You know, most of us
don't really look.

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If we're in a place that's
familiar to ourselves--

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to us, like, the
place where we live,

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we're not really
looking at it, you know.

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We can reach for the doorknob,
because we know where

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the doorknob is, you know.

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The place is familiar to us.

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And therefore, we don't
really have to consider it.

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But you have to try
to de-familiarize it.

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You have to think, what
would this house be like,

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You have to think, what
would this house be like,

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what would this apartment
be like, if I came into it

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and had never been here before.

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What would I see then?

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What would be the
first thing I see?

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What would I think of the
person who lives in this place?

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What sort of person is this?

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What do the things
on the walls tell us

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about the person who lives here?

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Are there pictures?

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Are there not pictures?

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Are there bookshelves?

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Are there not
bookshelves, you know?

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I, myself, feel
very uneasy going

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into a house in which
there are no bookshelves.

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into a house in which
there are no bookshelves.

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I think it tells me something
about the owner of the house

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that I don't like, you
know, that they don't read.

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So as-- as-- we're trying to
make the familiar unfamiliar.

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Try and imagine
that if you didn't

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know this place very well,
how would you react to it?

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You know, and what would you
think about its occupants?

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What would it show you
about its occupants?

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Walking is very good, you know.

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I mean, I've always loved
walking in cities, you know.

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I-- just as a--

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as an adventure, you know.

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It's not that anything
really happens.

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But just-- walking
in cities, in order

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to see the life of the city as
it moves around me, you know.

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Who's there?

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Who's there?

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Where have they come from?

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What's their story?

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In the great metropolises,
whether it's Bombay or London

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or New York, you have the
same experience that you--

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as you walk in the
city, you see people

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from everywhere in the world.

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The metropolis is like that.

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It's the magnet.

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You know, and people
come from everywhere.

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As you walk in the city, just
look at people and think,

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what's their life?

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What do I know
about their lives?

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Do I know-- do I know
anything about their lives?

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Maybe I should try and know
something about their lives.

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Maybe I should try and know
something about their lives.

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What is their
picture of the world?

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What's the picture of the world
they're walking around in,

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you know?

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And-- and that'll
sharpen your own vision.

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And we take-- we take the
world we live in for granted.

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We think we know its shape.

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I remember when
I was very young,

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and I was trying to get a
job in an advertising agency.

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They sent me, like,
an exam, like a test.

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They sent me, like,
an exam, like a test.

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And one of the questions
I had to answer

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was, imagine that you meet a
Martian who speaks English,

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but who doesn't
know what bread is.

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And explained to him
in 100 words or less

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how to make a piece of toast.

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Very hard question
to answer, actually.

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Because there are
so many assumptions

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we make about bread and
toast and electricity

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and so on, that if you
come from another planet,

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you don't know what bread
or electricity or toast is.

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So it becomes hard
to tell-- you have

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So it becomes hard
to tell-- you have

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to tell them a story about it.

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But that's what I'm saying.

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Try to make yourself the alien
walking through the world,

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to see it as if you've never
seen it, to see it as somebody

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not you would see it.

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The question of sound--

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sound is very valuable,
because, you know,

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sound is very valuable,
because, you know,

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a soundscape, again, is a thing
that we all live in as much

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as we live in a
landscape or a cityscape.

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You know, we-- whether we
are fully conscious of it

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or not, there's a kind of
repertoire of sounds that

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is around us, whether that's
traffic or birdsong or somebody

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busking in the subway or
a dog yelling in the park,

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busking in the subway or
a dog yelling in the park,

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barking in the park.

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We move through a kind
of soundscape every day.

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And-- and that is very
specific to the kind of place

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that we're in.

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And in a novel, as
in life, a sound

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can be a warning of
something, you know.

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Thunder is a warning of a storm.

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Thunder is a warning of a storm.

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It can add emotion, and it
can add drama to a scene,

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if used properly.

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I mean, it's kind
of become a cliche

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that when there's
going to be trouble

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between two people in the
relationship they get caught

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in a storm, you know.

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So you should try and
avoid those cliches.

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In a way, it would
be better for people

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to be in the most beautiful,
idyllic, peaceful, bird

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chirping setting, and then
to have the great fight

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chirping setting, and then
to have the great fight

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of their lives and break up.

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The contrast would be
more pleasing than just

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to have thunder and lightning
around them, which is banal.

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But yeah, if you start
really thinking about it,

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you can use sound in
a story as an effect.

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There are writers who are
wonderfully good at dialogue.

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You know, and characters
leap into life

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because of the
various idiosyncrasies

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of how they speak.

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That's a skill which can be
learned by listening, you know.

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No two people
speak the same way.

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And if you start listening, not
just to the words they use--

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the pitch of their
voice, you know.

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Do they have a high
voice or a low voice?

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Does their voice rise in
pitch when they get excited?

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Does their voice fall in
pitch when they get angry?

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How does their voice
work in their body?

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You know, and how does it
express what they feel?

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So even before you get to
the words they're saying,

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So even before you get to
the words they're saying,

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you know, just the
sound of their voice

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can tell you
something about them.

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You know, and-- and then, of
course, there is the question--

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we were talking about
how people actually speak

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and what is their
way of speaking.

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And the more you listen
to that, the more

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you will become capable
of replicating it.

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Because I say, no two people
speak in the same way.

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Even if you are from
the same family,

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Even if you are from
the same family,

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you know, your sister won't
speak the same way as you do.

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And you have to listen
to how she speaks.

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What does she like to say?

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What does she talk about?

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And what are the
words she uses, which

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may not be the same as
the words you would use?

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So it's just a way of
changing your focus, you know.

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Focus on these things instead.

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And they will help you.