Patrick Ness Transcipt

Interview transcription

Emily: You have a new book coming out, called Release, on the fourth of May, and it is a very personal story for you because you also grew up in a very religious American home which was quite tough as you are gay. Do you draw on your experiences a lot for your books or was this the first time that you have done it?

Patrick: I rarely do direct autobiography because I’m a novelist and you need to create a fictional world, I am always inspired by correct emotional things, and things that I worry about things that concern me. I don’t like that idea of an issue book. I always truly believe that if you are responding to a story that really wants to be told by you, its going to contain all of the things that you care about, all the things that you worry about, all the things that you really believe in and grapple with. That’s what I try to do, so I listen to the story that wants to be told knowing that I am responding to it for a reason and it’s going to be about things that I care about, and that are important to me. Usually that’s an emotional autobiographical, I think all novels are, but this one felt right, it’s not about my childhood but there are a lot of things in that book that are from my experience or adapted from my experience.

E: You have said in the past that it was quite hard for you growing up, do you think in the current climate now that attitudes have changed towards that sort of thing?

P: They have definitely changed; the young generation now really cannot see the same problems that the rest of us seem to. They just don’t understand why it took so long to get gay marriage, having said that, it is changing but it has not one hundred percent changed, I still constantly get tweets and messages and letters from kids that are struggling and having a tough time, because its such a personal thing the world is, on its face, a straight place. So to acknowledge that you are different than that, its powerful and it can be very useful and you can grow a lot from it but that’s a tough realization to make. To decide, ‘’alright how am I going to live with this, how am I going to embrace it and become who I should be.’’ That’s not just tough for a gay kid, that’s tough for a lot of kids.

E: So when you were growing up, was that one of the hardest things you overcame, coming out and things like that, what other hurdles have you had growing up that you have drawn on?

P: I yearned to get away, I yearned to get to college, and I was laser focused on that. We were quite a poor family so we had to work very, very hard for college and to arrange scholarships and everything. I knew that if I could just hold out till then I could figure out who I was. My family are not bad people, it’s not that at all, but their quite religious and that just wasn’t going to work for me. So I was really laser focused on getting away and that sense of yearning, the sense of I am not who I need to be yet, I was reaching and longing to get to a place of sort of freedom and figuring myself out, I think is universal to a teenager. You have got all of the mini responsibilities of being an adult and almost none of the privileges. So that sense of yearning, I think is in all of my books, that longing for knowledge, the longing for connection, the longing for friendship and love, I think that is in all of my books.

E: You were recently named one of the most powerful writers in Hollywood, alongside ___ and Stephen King, they are such huge names were you pretty chuffed to be alongside them?

P: Yeah it was kind of funny, I think it was because of a monster calls, and because of Class, both were in production and coming out, getting ready to being released. I have lived in Los Angeles for ten years, I’m here now in this interview, I have lived here for ten years and couple that with the fact that I didn’t publish my first book until I was thirty-one, I didn’t really hit success until I was forty, both of those things make me kind of, you know, I take being named one of the most powerful novelists in Hollywood in the right way. It is so much better to be named it than not to be named it. I know how these things work and it’s a pleasure, I take it in the right spirit with a big smile and a laugh.

E: Since you have become successful in your writing, what has been the best thing about the success that you’ve gained?

P: My fundamental philosophy is that no one should tell a writer what to write but the writer. I mean that in terms of age group, genre and medium. I really believe a writer should always feel free to try any kind of writing, he might not be good at it, but I really love when writers reach out, for me that feels like the way to stay challenged because the enemy, the death of creativity is complacency, I am always looking for a project, or a way to make myself frightened in the right way while writing so that I am always paying attention and there is a risk of failure. As the books took off I thought ‘’well I want to write the script for A Monster Calls’’, the best thing about some of those things working is that I get more opportunities to try, I get an opportunity to do a TV show, and I get an opportunity for people to come to me and ask about book adaptations or scripts they want writing. That’s the best thing I really like the sky to be as big as possible. I want to keep learning and I want to keep growing and keep being challenged, that’s the best thing.

E: Yeah, brilliant. How did you originally get in to writing? I’m guessing you studied English at university?

P: I did, but I always wrote as a kid, I believe in the perverse logic of a child that ‘’only famous people wrote books’’, which is nonsense, but it’s kind of a childhood sense. I didn’t think that somebody like me, a poor kid from a small, small town would ever be a novelist but I always say, especially when I teach writing, I kind of have this thing that real writers don’t write, they write anyway. I came from a place where I thought I would never write a book, I wrote one anyway. I had no reason to believe that anyone would ever film a script of mine, I wrote one anyway. That’s kind of how I approached it. I think spite is a really good motivator.

E: Are you quite strict when your writing, do you have your own room where you lock yourself away because obviously its not a nine to five job, do you write during the day or in the evening?

P: I always say that people cannot tell you how to write they can only tell you how they write. If you start writing and you finish with a book then you have done it correctly, there is certainly no one-way to do it. I know that I work well to goals so I will set myself daily goals, like a word count or a revision count. That works for me, and it might not work for you, but it works for me. I just pretend that we’re Bukowski, all down at the bar you know, but I don’t think that’s really true, you have to have a certain kind of discipline or you’re never going to get a book finished.

E: I need that impending deadline over me otherwise I would get nothing done. Obviously when A Monster Calls was made in to a script did you ever think it would be so big and get Liam Neeson and Sigourney Weaver involved? Did you go down on set at all, were you involved quite heavily on set?

P: It’s that hopes VS. Expectation thing, you can hope all you like, and that’s fun, I fantasized about what kind of cast I was going to get but you never really expect that. So when it did happen it was just amazing, in fact I am knocking on a wooden table now because I feel so lucky about it. I was very involved and that was just a fantastic experience, I wrote the script and I worked with a director to bring in his ideas, I was on set probably twelve or thirteen times, constantly writing all the way through because you make discoveries while you film. It was just such a great process, that’s really what I want to do I want to keep learning new things and exercise my muscles.

E: Have you ever been star struck, being around people like Liam Neeson? Because I would be!

P: That’s interesting because you know, you write books you meet famous people, it just happens and I like to think that I am pretty cool. I have only lost my shit twice, one was with Judy Blume and the other, hilariously and unexpectedly was John Taylor from Duran Duran, the two of them are both for clearly the same reason because somebody who is important to you as a teenager, there will never be anybody else who is that important to you. You meet them and suddenly you thirteen and your giggling and your thinking ‘’oh my god its Duran Duran!’’ So I forgive myself for that, its absolutely fine.

E: You have other scripts in the making don’t you, with the Chaos walking trilogy that you made into a movie.

P: Yeah, fingers crossed we are very nearly ready, its not a green light just yet but hopefully we are close so.

E: So what is the difference between script writing and novel writing, do you find it quite easy to switch over in to each one?

P: I love it because they are very different, and it requires different kind of writing muscles to do. With a book you have a whole world at your fingertips, everything is possible and that’s what is scary about it. The tyranny of choice and the tyranny of ‘’you are responsible for everything that happens here.’’ A script is like a really challenging puzzle because you have things that you have to do. There are formats and structures that you are required to apply, for good reason. The way I have always liked to think about script writing is as a teenager how I would rebel was I would follow all the rules to the letter of the law, and look for ways within the letter of the law, which meant I could do whatever I wanted. That kind of rebellion that’s how I approach script writing, I think ‘’ok I’ve got this that I must do so how I can I follow all of your rules and still do whatever the hell I want, that’s a fun challenge.

E: With Release, theoretically if it were made in to a film, who would you like to play Adam? If you had to pick someone.

P: Oh gosh, I’m so lousy at casting, well you know, Adam is seventeen, and there are so many fine, fine actors, I mean I love my Class cast, I think their fantastic, I would pick the wrong cool teenager to play. That’s the cool thing about film making is that I think I have got a set of skills that are useful and there are things that I think I can do but then there are things that are just not me and I just don’t know how to do and that is when collaboration works best. Its like with the Monster Calls the book, I could do my part, I could tell the story but then in comes Jim Kay who does these amazing illustrations that I would never think of. Together the book becomes bigger than either of us. That the same with the movie and so for Release I would not even want to guess because somebody is going to come along and be way better and I’m going to be like ‘’oh well that’s obvious who wouldn’t think of that!’’

E: With A Monster Calls I red that you didn’t originally start the book did you? Someone else was writing it and they passed away?

P: Siobhan Dowd

E: Yes that’s right, what appealed to you about the book for you to carry on with the writing?

P: Well it was a challenge, for one, it was an interesting challenge, how often does that ever happen? She was such a wonderful writer, and I ___ my publishers, it was such a good idea and she was such a good writer and if I could do anything to keep her name in the public eye then I would be delighted. Mostly it was the short section of a chapter and a setup but it was so powerful that it automatically started other ideas. That’s the magic potion, if you have got an idea that does that then you know your on to something.  

E: Exactly yeah.

P: I could feel that there was such a powerful beginning I was like wow lets go and find out what’s here.

E: It’s a phenomenal story it’s unbelievable.  Also with A Monster Calls have you realised that since then you have become more famous, do you get recognised in the street now or anything like that?

P: No author gets recognised! I said this on twitter; I said the most famous author in the world is ____ member of fifth harmony. Authors just do not get recognised, that to me is the very best kind of fame, I am so lucky to have had some success, I am so lucky to have the movie and the books and the TV show but I can still be anonymous on public transport. That I love, that is the best combination because you can still look at the world and filter it and be a spy and then take that and then put it in your writing.

E: And you need that if you are a novelist I guess you need to be able to witness everyone.

P: Yeah.

E: Brilliant! So you are in LA at the moment but do you live mainly in London?

P: I do, yeah.

E: But you’re originally from America. Do you quite like having London as your base?  When you’re having your time away from your novel writing, are you a big reader or what would you sort of do to chill out?

P: I’m constantly reading, I don’t think any writer can give up their constant reading. A couple of times a year ill take a beach holiday be free from obligation. That to me is my idea of real bliss, because I write, I have a constant obligation to be doing something, to step away and do absolutely nothing, I usually take a big stack of books and all I do is sit under an umbrella in the sun and read.

E: Yeah, oh my god my boyfriend hates me because when we go on holiday we hardly speak because I just read the whole time, I take like three books with me and he is like please can we socialise! But once your stuck in a book you cant!

P: You can socialise at other times!

E: Brilliant! Also you’re quite vocal on twitter, do you enjoy social media, it is something that you like to keep up and things like that?

P: Twitter for example has got some good points, and it also has some really bad points, there are a lot of voices that you wish you had never heard. Every time that I think ‘’what a drag this is’’ and all the yelling and the screaming and the nastiness every time I think I want to quit I think well you are a grown man and so think about the poor fifteen year old you, or the fourteen year old you, who was having to hear this stuff. So I tend to stay so that once in a while I am able to say ‘’I know this is tough but I heard it as well and I got through it and you will too.’’ That’s the most powerful thing about social media is the sense of community, of finding people so that you’re not alone, that why I tend to stay so that I can say to young people, yeah I acknowledge that there is tough stuff here but there is beauty as well, there is hope and there is a future so just hang in there because it worked for me and it will work for you.

E: Lastly, what writers do you look up to? Whose books do you really enjoy and who do you think is a really good writer?

P: I absolutely love, love, love Ali Smith, I think she is so smart and open hearted and generous. I think she is the best of British. She is a great writer; she is a great human being. Her books are just gorgeous and experimental but accessible, that’s the best combination. They are just so human and that’s everything I want to be as a writer. I would love to be Ali Smith when I grow up.

E: Thank you so much Patrick for all of that, it was brilliant. I look forward to watching the chaos walking and also _________ because I am a massive Doctor Who fan as well, basically everything you do I follow.

P: Well thank you very much! Chaos walking, I will put it in the vaguest terms possible because I am not sure how much I am allowed to say, it is very, very hopeful that we are very, very close.

E: Amazing! Good luck I hope Release does well I’m sure it will.