Meet Per Petterson, one of the finest Norwegian writers, who talks about writing between the lines and playing with what’s not being told. And about a country that’s flooded with money.
Norwegian writer Per Petterson was born 1952 and is one of the most important living Norwegian writers. In 2005 New York Times compared Petterson to Knut Hamsun and called his novel ‘Out Stealing Horses’ one of this year’s best novels. James Wood, critic at The New Yorker Magazine, has acclaimed ‘I Curse the River of Time’ from 2010.
In this interview Per Petterson talks about his writing, how he started out trying to be like his favorite writer Ernest Hemingway, but all attempts failed. “It took me until the mid 80s
to be able to achieve anything”, he says. “If I am completely honest then my problem now isn’t that I think nothing fresh will come to me, but the anxiety that it won’t”.
“The one person you can trust 100% is the reader. Readers aren’t stupid. I’ve learnt that I can leave things out and not bother to include everything.”
Petterson grew up in a working class family and sees a Norway today where “You’re supposed to show off your money and success.To have not much money in Norway today is embarrassing.”
Per Petterson was interviewed by Kim Skotte, from Politiken Daily Newspaper in connection to the Louisiana Literature festival august 2013, at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark.
Camera: Klaus Elmer and Mathias Nyholm
Edited by: Kamilla Bruus
Produced by: Christian Lund
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2014
Supported by Nordea-fonden
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