As an artist you create a bubble and live in it: Yann Martel

“There are four types of reviews - good reviews that like the book for good reasons, good reviews that like the book for wrong reasons, bad reviews that dislike the book for good reasons, which really hurt, and bad reviews that dislike the book for wrong reasons, meaning they're written by idiots.”
Forthright, direct and honest, Yann Martel the author who shook the world with his novel, ‘Life of Pi’ a timeless saga that ambles between adventure, spirituality and perseverance, kept the audience glued at the Canada House with his witty, gritty and occasional intrepid remarks. Discussing the ‘Life of Yann’, post the novel that not just won the most prestigious award for literature but also sold more than 12 million copies, news anchor Sagarika Ghosh interviewed Yann about his works and life as a bestselling author.
Yann Martel who is in the Capital to attend a popular literary event revealed that a movie that inspired him greatly was Reds, the 1981 American historical drama which chronicles the life and career of John Reed, who wrote the book, 'Ten Days That Shook The World’ on Russian Revolution.
On being asked about the writers who have made a lasting impression on him, Martel said that he was greatly influenced by Victorian novelist Thomas Hardy and his realism, Twentieth century American fiction writers and Afro-Australian novelist and critic J M Coetzee’s literary philosophy.
Martel revealed that he likes to use animals in his works because they are more potent vehicles of story telling because of their innocence and we are less cynical about them as we are of our own species. One of the most successful novelists of our times, Martel said “As an artist you create a bubble and live in that bubble. I have also lived my characters this way.”
After his latest release The High Mountains of Portugal, Martel is now working on another novel based on Trojan War.
The lively evening ended with a thanksgiving speech by His Excellency Nadir Patel, The High Commissioner for Canada to India.