287. Something They Can’t Do Alone - Hanif Kureishi
Photo by Jeff Hochberg/Getty Images
Music and cinema emerge out of creative alliances, from the Beatles to Miles Davis, Alfred Hitchcock to Robert Altman.
Since an accident left me without the use of my arms or legs, I have never been so busy. Last night at around nine, I watched a few minutes of The Glass Onion, which I enjoyed. Then I lost connection and everything went dark. I fell asleep, woke at one, and was conscious for the rest of the night. I had many ideas, but since I can’t use my hands and make notes, I have to shout them at my poor son Carlo, who is trying to get some sleep. This is how I write these days; I fling a net over more or less random thoughts, draw it in and hope some kind of pattern emerges.
On the writing of my book, Shattered, which Carlo is helping me with, it has become clear how pleasurable it is to write with someone else. We work from ten until one every morning, and get about five pages of editing and rewriting done. We are cutting, reshaping and expanding the dispatches, keeping them in the present tense, and arguing over improvements. It reminds me of working on plays and movies with directors and dramaturgs, where there is plenty of amusing gossip about politics and sport, even as you work. It is consoling to work alone as a writer, but it is a blast to have companionship and banter.
My wife Isabella’s grandmother, a screenwriter who wrote many films—The Leopard and Rocco and His Brothers for Luchino Visconti and Roman Holiday for William Wyler—said in an interview that the best way to write comedies was to work with others, since you can test the humor as you go. The internal critical voice, the one that tells you that you are no good, is muted when there are others to cheer you along.
Music and cinema emerge out of creative alliances, from the Beatles to Miles Davis, Alfred Hitchcock to Robert Altman. Would we have heard of Lennon or McCartney if they had never met? Maybe the most important thing an artist can do is go to school with the right people, or have the ability to recognize a compatible talent. An artist can then do something they can’t do alone.
- Hanif Kureishi
