pinter interview

8/11/2019 Pinter Interview

1/10

with Ramona KovalSunday 15/9/2002

Harold Pinter

Summary:

Legendary British writer, director and political activist Harold Pinter reveals his fight againstcancer - and how it has influenced his work - to Ramona Koval at the Edin urgh !nternationalBook "estival#

Details or Trans ri!t:

I could be a bit of a pain in the arse. Since Ive come out of my cancer, I must say I intend to beeven more of a pain in the arse. $laughter, applause%

Ramona Koval & 'nd that was the legendary genius of British theatre& playwright, poet, director,actor, screenwriter, prose writer and political activist, Harold Pinter( who )oins us in the second ofour series from the Edin urgh !nternational Book "estival#

Harold Pinter*s plays, from the earliest, like The Birthday Party or The Dumb Waiter , to his mostrecent, like Celebration and shes to shes , have een so influential in theatre all over the world,that the word +Pinteres ue* has appeared in the le icon to descri e the particular menace ofstripped-down language and pregnant pauses that characterise his work# .he conversation you*rea out to hear was recorded at the /avid 0ohen British Literature Pri1e event at the "estival# 'ndHarold Pinter is one of a very small, distinguished group of British writers who have won thisprestigious pri1e#

2ne aspect of the award3for a lifetime*s achievement3is that the winner is given ten thousandpounds to pass on to a person or institution that they wish to support or encourage# 4hen Harold

Pinter won it, he gave it to the 0iti1ens* .heatre of 5lasgow, which championed his work at acrucial time for him#

'nd recently Harold Pinter has een through another crucial time# He*s )ust recovered from ma)orsurgery for cancer of the oesophagus# !n 6arch this year he pu lished a poem in the !uardian newspaper called +0ancer 0ells*, which descri ed the fight etween Pinter and his cancer( hisneed to see the tumour dead# 4hen ! spoke to Harold Pinter in Edin urgh, ! egan y calling thepoem +a call to arms* against his cancer#

Harold Pinter & 7es, ! wrote the poem when ! was having chemotherapy# 'nd you know inchemotherapy you sit there where the nurse )ust puts the thing into your arm# .he chemo# 'ndshe suddenly said this, this particular nurse said, 0ancer cells are those which have forgottenhow to die# ! was so struck y this statement that ! went away and wrote that poem# Because at

the time ! didn*t know whether ! was going to die or not# 'nd that poem, ! think, representsprecisely, ! hope, what ! felt at the time# ! had no idea what was going to happen, and in fact it*seen uite a year from that point of view# .he stan1a there says, +! need to see my tumour dead 8

' tumour which forgets to die 8 But plans to murder me instead#* 'nd in fact !*m happy to say that !have seen my tumour dead# $applause%

'nd in reference to that e perience, ! want to take my hat off to the surgeon who actually did it# 'remarka le man, as these surgeons of course are# 'nd my wife, who*s een uite wonderfulthroughout the whole e perience, in support of me# $applause%! think you need two kinds of things to survive when you have a disease like this# 2ne is, you


2/10

need a rilliant surgeon( and the other is you need a rilliant wife# 'nd ! was very fortunate inhaving oth# 9o the whole thing, honestly, Ramona, remains a kind of dark dream, for me# !t waslike eing in a pretty impenetra le forest in which you literally couldn*t see the wood for the trees#!n other words, ! had no idea what was going on half the time, during this operation, and comingout of the operation3you see !*d never een ill in my life efore, really3so it was uitee traordinary at the age of seventy-one to suddenly find myself in hospital facing a very severecancer and a ma)or operation# 'nd it was something ! hadn*t even considered# ! found myself, as !say, in a very dark world which was impossi le to interpret# ! couldn*t work it out# 9o for two orthree weeks ! was somewhere else# ! was in another place altogether# :ot very pleasant, ! mustsay#

Ramona Koval & /o you mean post-operatively;

Harold Pinter & Post-operatively, yes# ! didn*t uite know where ! was# 'nd certainly not what ! was3if ! was anything at all# 'nd it was really only very, very gradually3! don*t know if anyone herehas had this kind of e perience, !*m sure there are one or two people who have3it*s like eingplunged into, well, !*ll give another image, an ocean in which you can*t swim# 7ou*ve no idea howto get out of it and you simply float a out and o a out and are hit y terri le waves and so on,and it*s all very dark, really# 'nyway, the thing is, here ! am#

Ramona Koval & 4hen people go through the e perience that you*ve had, they often think a outtime and urgency and priorities# Even with your famed energy, have you found that there aresome kinds of work that you want to do now more than other kinds of work; Politics more thanwriting, or poems rather than plays or prose;

Harold Pinter & ! think the main earing on my life at the moment is simply to survive# .o remain#.o remain here# .hat*s een my main concern# 'nd that comes down to very simple facts# Howyou use your energy, and as your energy grows, very gradually, how you actually dispose of it#

'nd also one*s diet and so on# 6y wife keeps a very close eye on that#

! have written one poem, y the way, since that# 9o occasionally it does hit me, the words on apage# 'nd ! still love doing that, as ! have for the last si ty years, really# .hat e citement3! wrotea poem a couple of weeks ago and that e citement remains when ! looked at the yellow page,

very late, midnight one night in fact3and suddenly started to write# ' very short piece of work, uta short piece of work means as much to me as a long piece of work# 9o ! hope that ne t year wille fuller and etter ecause !*m feeling stronger#

Ramona Koval & /o you think you are changing through this e perience, do you think theessential Harold Pinter-ness of you is changing;

Harold Pinter & ! think one is changed y it, without any uestion# !*m more conscious of death,really# !*m also more


3/10

other people have, in the world, as you know# 'nd so therefore ! say that one is still part of3outof one*s consciousness and out of one*s recognition3of other people*s reality, and what happens,what death actually means to other people# 'nd also slightly at the side of it, ecause it hasn*tactually happened to us#

.his is what of course has een e tremely significant a out what happened in :ew 7ork last9eptem er, ecause suddenly those people, who didn*t know they were part of it, found theywere part of it# :ot only part of it, ut actually central to it# 'nd those poor people who were killedin that horrifying event were undou tedly, not only them3! ought not to speak a out the dead,really, ecause the dead are all over the place and it always remains the same thing# .hey aredead# .hey*ve een murdered# But it*s their relatives, for e ample, those people who mourn thedead# "or the 'mericans it was o viously a very, very new e perience, whereas it is not a newe perience for people in 0entral and 9outh 'merica and 'sia and !ndia and all over the damnplace, really#

Ramona Koval & 7ou spoke efore a out the )oy you had in writing that latest poem, ando viously language has een your passion, really, all your life# 'nd then )ust relating the idea ofwar and the use of words in war3and ! know that the a use of language and meaning issomething that has incensed you over the years3you and 5eorge 2rwell, actually3phrases like+humanitarian intervention* and +civilised world#* 'nd ! wondered a out the use of the term +a is ofevil* over the last year3and one that we*ve all )ust egun to hear recently, and that*s +regimechange*, which ! heard coming out of 4ashington a month ago or so, and !*ve heard againparroted y British politicians3almost like something that has a ring of the force of nature a out it3a new concept# 9o ! wondered if you would share your thoughts a out those things#

Harold Pinter & 6y favourite of them all is the +freedom-loving people*# 4hen ! hear Bush say, +onehalf of all freedom-loving people,* you know, +we are going to continue to fight terrorists,* and soon# ! wonder what a freedom-hating people looks like# !*ve never actually met such a peoplemyself, or can*t even conceive of it# !n other words, he*s talking ru ish, and that is the kind ofrhetoric which you*re referring to, which is commonplace, really, in what we call the +4estern4orld,* isn*t it; !t happens every day of the damn week# 'nd our governments spout this all thetime, not really considering seriously, precisely what they*re talking a out#

!n other words, ! think that when you look at a man like our Prime 6inister, who ! gather is a verysincere and serious 0hristian, he, we understand, at the moment is considering another om ingof !ra , which actually would e an act of murder3of pre-meditated murder# Because !f you om!ra , you*re not )ust going to kill 9addam Hussein3you won*t do that, anyway, he has hisresources3 ut what you will do, is kill, as usual, thousands of totally innocent people#

'nd how .ony Blair can work that one out, morally, himself, as a 0hristian, is actually eyond me#! )ust wish he*d decide he was a 0hristian or he wasn*t a 0hristian# !f you say, +!*m going to omthese damn people and ! don*t give a shit,* then you om them# But that*s not a 0hristian attitudeas far as ! understand# !f you take a 0hristian posture, you cannot say that# 9o therefore you can*tsay, +!*m going to murder thousands of innocent people,* and say, +! remain a 0hristian,* ecausethat is not a 0hristian stance, as ! understand it# !*m not a 0hristian myself, so nevertheless

pinter interview

Documents