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
believe
I must believe that in words we will find what in fury we cannot.
inner life somebody
I want to keep an inner life alive and, with luck, somebody else's, too.
certain distance time within
If you are writing something, you automatically create a certain distance. It can be very little. Even within the same city you imaginatively have a certain distance from your subject, and at the same time, you have to have a connection.
I don't think I knew I would be a writer. I wanted to become a writer, and I tried to write.
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.
books british building discovered fit globe holland library park peculiar seen
In London, I discovered a peculiar building by Holland Park where the globe was shrunk to fit a British perspective, but which had a library with Sri Lankan books I had never seen before.
I like inventing things when I write rather than autobiography.
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.
believe carefully retain sentence strength time
I believe if a sentence is to retain its strength over time, it needs to be carefully made.
earn expected money published realised
I never expected to earn money out of writing. In fact, the idea of getting published was too bourgeois. Then, in England, I realised that writing a book was something you could do without it being laughable.
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
dangerous desire fiction forget seek seems technology troubling
It seems to me that we live in dangerous times all over the world: we have the technology to remember everything but a desire to forget the troubling and to seek the safety of numbness. Fiction can do something about that.
might nursery peace war
You might want to write 'War and Peace,' but that might not be who you are. You might be better off with nursery rhymes.