TIM WINTON

Born in Perth, Western Australia, in 1960, Tim Winton is the author of several novels for adults, including Cloudstreet, and the Booker-shortlisted The Riders and Dirt Music. He's also written travel books, books for children, and several collections of short stories.

This interview took place in May 2008, while Tim was in the UK on a publicity tour for his most recent novel, Breath, and features questions from EnCompass readers and Reader in Residence Susan Tranter.  

Find out more about his work on Contemporary Writers.

 Photo: Denise Fintch

Susan Tranter: Welcome Tim, and thanks for joining us. EnCompass is all about recommendations for great reads, so I wonder if you've read anything lately which you’d like to recommend?

Tim Winton: I've been reading some Auden of late, and I’m getting a lot of pleasure from that. When I was younger I had a bit of an attitude towards Auden, but now I’m old enough to see how that lightness of tone and touch is masking a reservoir of good sense. I just think he’s a genius. I’ve also read Richard Bausch’s novella Peace, a beautiful little book.

David R: How long did it take you to write Breath? Were there any particular parts or aspects of the book which were hard going?

Tim Winton: A couple of years. I quite enjoyed myself writing it. Some of the confronting stuff in the last third of the book was the hardest going. Writing in the voice of someone quite bruised by life, you do imbibe a bit of that sadness yourself.

Geegee21: I haven’t read Breath yet but I’m looking forward to it. I’d like to ask Tim how hard he found it to describe something like surfing, which people will ‘get’ straightaway if they’ve done it, but might struggle to visualise if they haven’t.

Tim Winton: Good question. It was one of the real technical challenges of the book. Trying to write a literary book about surfing is itself almost absurd, because of the cultural expectations of what a literary book is supposed to be about, and what surfers are supposed to be about. It’s hard to write about physical sensation without descending into gobbledegook, resorting to jargon or endless hyperbole. You’re trying to walk both sides of the street really, to communicate a particular experience to people who don’t know anything about it, and also those who do. That level of immediacy is quite hard to maintain.
The response I’ve had to the book from surfers has been quite lovely, passionate and fervent. But what’s been really lovely has been that the response from non-surfers has been even more fervent.

Lou: G’day Tim. Great news that you’ve got a new book out; can’t wait to read it. Tim, how important is it to you to set your books in your native land, and have you experienced any pressure to cast your net a bit wider?

Tim Winton: Writing about where I come from, the voices and vernacular and the particular situations of my origins just comes naturally – it’s not something I feel pressure about one way or another. Over nearly thirty years now I’ve been writing out of details of place and going out from there. I don’t feel any pressure to start going all cosmopolitan! I’ve surrendered to the fact that I’m writing from a region and a milieu that’s distinctive.

TheWormHasTurned: It seems quite a few of Tim’s books feature young characters. What is it that appeals to him about seeing things through the eyes of young people, and has his perspective on this changed as he’s got older himself?

Tim Winton: The new novel is narrated by a middle-aged person looking back on their younger years, examining who he once was, and being a bit appalled. I guess I do often write about young people. I’m interested in the strange combination of knowing and unknowing, or naivety and almost-getting-it. It’s a period of great uncertainty, being not quite fully fomed, more malleable. But I’ve written about old people too...

Anu: Hi Tim. Hope you’re enjoying your visit to the UK. I loved the short stories in The Turning. Do you write stories at the same time you’re working on a novel, or do they occupy different headspace? And can we expect to see another collection from you at some point?

Tim Winton: For many years I did write stories and novels at the same time. I used to have three desks, and I moved from one to the other, it was a kind of way of dignifying getting stuck. But I haven’t done that for a few years now. I’d like to write more stories, they’re definitely my first love, and the first thing I realised I was good at.

BigReader: I’m a big Cloudstreet fan, but I don’t know anything about how you came to write the book. How much of the characters and story are based on your own experiences?

Tim Winton: Not much, as most of it takes place before I was born. But it does borrow a bit from family mythology. My grandmother did live in a tent in the back yard of her shop. Some people have seen magical realism in it, but there’s more journalism in it than they realise! In a way I was writing about places that were an important part of family myth, but that had been demolished. Writing was a way of recapturing places I never saw. It was a kind of hymn to a place I never knew.

Clare: What was the best piece of advice anyone gave you when you were starting out as a writer?

Tim Winton: ‘Save everything.’ When you decide something’s not working or no good – don’t throw it away. It could be that things aren’t any good where they are at the moment, or where you’re putting them, but they can find their level later. Some of the stories in The Turning are twenty years old. They just didn’t feel right at the time. Also, if you’re doing this for a living, you can’t afford to throw anything away. You never know when you might need something.

DayZee: Hello Tim. I’d be fascinated to know something of your writing routine.

Tim Winton: My routine is the mornings and the best part of the afternoons. I tend not to map out, I fly by the seat of my pants a little bit. With novels, I try to hold off until the very last minute, 'til it feels like I’m welling up with it. I’m afraid of starting too early, in case it trickles out to nothing. Like Hemingway said, always keep a little bit in the well, and let it fill up.

MM22: I have two questions - a) What’s hot in Australian literature at the moment? and b) How much of a literary community is there among writers in Oz?

Tim Winton: I'm not sure what constitutes a literary community, but there’s a lot of writers writing and a lot of readers consuming it. The last twenty years has been a very vibrant period for Australian writing and reading, so I’m lucky to have come along during that time. Australians buy and read more books per capita than most other English-speaking nations (including Britain). It might be something to do with the new world, new confidence, a place finding its feet culturally. There’s a lot going on, particularly in children’s literature. And festivals are a huge component to readers finding books. In a way Australia sort of invented the literary festival – Adelaide is one of the oldest anywhere. There are now six major ones and around ten smaller ones - they’ve now become hard-wired into the culture. Connections between writers are more virtual in Australia because of the different time zones. I live five hours by plane from my publisher, and five hours from my agent, so I see them about once every two years.
In terms of what's hot... Over the last generation there’s been an impressive rise in books telling the lives of ordinary people. Albert Facey’s A Fortunate Life, and Sally Morgan’s My Place are good examples.

Susan Tranter: Finally Tim, may I ask what you’re working on at the moment?

Tim Winton: I’m working on getting home mate! This is the first time I’ve agreed to do a simultaneous publication of a book, and it’s a bit like wearing your underpants on the outside, you’ve got to be a superhero. I’ve done a two week tour in Australia, I’m doing a week in the UK, and then a few days in LA. All other work is interrupted.

Susan Tranter: Well on behalf of everyone, thanks so much for taking time out to answer these questions. Good luck with the rest of the trip, and the rest of the tour, and congratulations on Breath.

Back to main page