Romesh Gunesekera
Romesh Gunesekera
Romesh Gunesekera FRSLis a Sri Lankan-born British author, who was a finalist in the Man Booker Prize for his novel Reef in 1994. He is currently the Chair of the Judges of Commonwealth Short Story Prize competition for 2015...
NationalitySri Lankan
ProfessionAuthor
although amazingly business coming folk knew legendary life lived parents people places range sportsmen wider women
My parents knew a wider range of people than most, and so we had actors, journalists, politicians, planters, sportsmen and women and business folk all coming in and out of the places we lived in. Although my parents were not wealthy, they lived a legendary and amazingly cosmopolitan life.
countries shaped
My writing has been shaped by the three countries - Sri Lanka, the Philippines and England - I have lived in.
almost berlin came dealing east europe fantastic found situation stuff wall writers wrote
I was thinking of writers living in East Europe before the Berlin Wall came down. They wrote fantastic stuff but were dealing with a situation that was almost impossible to deal with, but they found a way.
chance couple extremely father jobs lucky nobody question travel
I was very lucky - it wasn't a question of being wealthy; my father was just extremely lucky with the couple of jobs he got. So we got a chance to travel when nobody else could travel.
childhoods smoothed tends
Most childhoods are full of anxiety, but that tends to get smoothed over, so you have a sense of nostalgia.
controls future interested power present
Who controls the present controls the past. There's a power structure, if you like, between the present and the past and the future, and that's what I'm interested in.
historical
We live in a world which is changing very fast. What seems contemporary now will be historical in two years.
means relationship time
Language is the means by which we negotiate our relationship with time.
architecture curiously england found history imperial post return town
To come to England in the 1970s was to return to this strange other-world of half-known history. I found the imperial architecture curiously familiar: the post office, the town hall, the botanic gardens.
believe carefully retain sentence strength time
I believe if a sentence is to retain its strength over time, it needs to be carefully made.
I don't think there ever will be a biopic on me! I would much like some of my books to be made into films.
aircraft left seems
An aircraft cabin is a place that seems to be nowhere, but I find it steeped in the place left behind and the place ahead.
artist helping conflict
Artists can help re-imagine a conflict and start a dialogue.
mean way stories
A novel means a new way of doing a story