Author Q&A: David Mitchell on Cloud Atlas, Bone Clocks and great TV
Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell on books, great TV and what to do to beat jet lag
The writer of Cloud Atlas , David Mitchell, was in Dubai recently to speak at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature. "It paid for the house," Mitchell says of his 2004 sci-fi novel of six interconnected stories about the past and the future. Cloud Atlas went on to become a Hollywood film. His sixth novel The Bone Clocks was long-listed for the 2014 Man Booker Prize. Mitchell has spent years teaching English in Japan. He has also taught in Italy. He prefers to not travel for book tours and literary festivals in some seasons. Domesticity requires him to be home with his wife and two children over the winter. During his session at the festival called "Writing Other Worlds", Mitchell disagreed with the view of fellow panellist Lauren Oliver who called writing "painful". Mitchell gently introduced a little perspective: painful is someone working in a sweatshop in the third world. Before he went on stage, Mitchell spoke to
Yes. First time. Am a bit woozy. For years people have been saying you must watch The Sopranos, you must watch The Sopranos. And I had the box set on the in-flight. So first I watched Birdman, which was wonderful. And then I started watching The Sopranos. I know I should have been trying to sleep but it was only about midnight - 1am UK time, or Irish time. So I arrived with my head full of The Sopranos (laughs). And you can see how it's influenced The Wire and things that have come since. And even things like Mad Men.
Very, very selectively. We don't have a TV at home. We just have DVDs. I haven't really started Apple TV or Netflix or anything like that. I'm still stuck in 2002. I'm still getting DVDs. My friends laugh. But the best of the best or the most addictive - so Game of Thrones and Mad Men. I'm slowly working through House. They're very formulaic. But I can watch one a month. It's my indulgence on Friday nights. Saturday nights. I don't really go out much. I don't go out to the pub. So I reward myself … oh and Breaking Bad, as well.