Another posting in the vein of All Things Stoppard.
Stoppard has an affection for the newspaper profession, having left
school in England at 17 to be a journeyman journalist in Bristol in
1954. "I loved it," he says. "Being a junior reporter on a morning
newspaper in a city of a quarter of a million is pretty glamorous
compared with being in boarding school. People I went to school with
all disappeared into offices."
When asked if his news writing shaped his playwriting, he says, "I may be the last person to know that answer because I'm not that self-aware. But just the daily practice and necessity of making decent sentences and finding the right word for something, that in itself must have been helpful.
...
"But more than that, I think the arts come from somewhere else. A meaningless phrase, I know. But. I don't think the arts are something you teach and learn. But. I'm missing the point I'm trying to make — which is that there is something about creativity that escapes the physical world, even escapes mathematical law. Artists aren't subject to that. It's hard to explain."
But that doesn't stop Stoppard from trying.
"When you're working well, and this may be true for all kinds of disciplines, you take leave of yourself in some sense in order to make that [thing happen]. I think one benefits from the subconscious in a very important way when you do creative work. What I'm aware of is that I don't know how I do what I do. I really don't know how it's done."
[more]
When asked if his news writing shaped his playwriting, he says, "I may be the last person to know that answer because I'm not that self-aware. But just the daily practice and necessity of making decent sentences and finding the right word for something, that in itself must have been helpful.
...
"But more than that, I think the arts come from somewhere else. A meaningless phrase, I know. But. I don't think the arts are something you teach and learn. But. I'm missing the point I'm trying to make — which is that there is something about creativity that escapes the physical world, even escapes mathematical law. Artists aren't subject to that. It's hard to explain."
But that doesn't stop Stoppard from trying.
"When you're working well, and this may be true for all kinds of disciplines, you take leave of yourself in some sense in order to make that [thing happen]. I think one benefits from the subconscious in a very important way when you do creative work. What I'm aware of is that I don't know how I do what I do. I really don't know how it's done."
[more]
