What I do remember clearly is the man who said to me in a quiet voice so no one would hear him that he read Life of Pi while he was in jail and it saved him. So I've had naïve questions put to me, but none that I would say were 'dumb.' It strikes me that anyone who comes to a reading and waits in line to meet a writer is likely to have thought carefully about what they are going to say.

Will Ferguson asks, 'What is the dumbest and/or weirdest question you've ever been asked at a book signing or interview?' I don't drink, so this question falls flat for me. David McGimpsey asks, 'If you were to pair your latest book with a signature cocktail, what is that cocktail called and what's it made of?' So it was fun balancing the truly autobiographical with the plausibly autobiographical.ģ. I used facts from my own life, but only to make that character seem plausible, and then I had something entirely implausible happen to him, something that could only be fictional. That character was a fictionalized version of myself. The main character in Self, my little-known first novel. Donna Morrissey asks, 'Who has been your favourite character to write so far, and why?' I'm still the same writer I was when I had no money, with the same strengths and weaknesses.Ģ. It made me a writer who had more time (mind you, busier, too, so my time is more eaten up by this, that and the other), but it didn't improve my writing. And no, it didn't make me a better writer.

I can answer that question fully and confidently. Nino Ricci asks, 'Do you think you would be a better writer if someone just gave you a big whack of money and you didn't need to worry anymore about earning an income?' Just possibly with fancier chocolate milk this time around.īelow, Yann Martel answers eight questions submitted by eight of his fellow writers in the CBC Books Magic 8 Q&A.ġ. Turns out Martel slogged away at his latest novel, the captivating historical treasure hunt/surrealist love story The High Mountains of Portugal, in much the same laborious fashion as he always has. The great Canadian reading list: 150 books to read for Canada 150.If you've been entertaining the notion that the stratospheric success of Life of Pi has left Yann Martel living the high life, he's ready to bring you back down to earth.

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