Conversation 3

Inspiration

Ann Enright

- naturalism
- realism
             the lift of the language

How do you find a shape of telling the story that fits the subject?

You move through an emotional arch - your arch is the journey of the narrator - as much as the events that are told. I like to put things next to each other, to juxtapose things, they are not moving in a linear fashion, but the emotional arch, the arrival at some other revelation, or surprise beyond the obvious surprise - those are the things I’m looking for in the narrator’s own journey.

Li Bai - The revered Chinese poet

Among the flowers a jug of wine

Drinking alone without companion

I raise the cup, invite bright moon

And my shadow, that makes three

The moon knows nothing of drinking

My shadow merely follows me

But our play with moon and shadow

Joyful till spring ends

I sing as the moon dances

I dance as my shadow tumbles

Sober when we found our joy

Drunk each goes his way

Forever bound to ramble free

To meet again in the river of stars

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