John Mortimer on books and writers

Last week I ran an item pointing to a London Times article on how and where eight famous writers go about their craft. I reprinted William Boyd's story, and Jeff Pierce ran an item on John Mortimer's.

I've since come across an entertaining 2002 interview with Mortimer which included these observations:

Graham Greene complained once that writing made his eyes tired. I asked if that was because of staring at the pages for so long. 'No,' he said, 'watching your characters going about their business, crossing rooms and so on.'

....

There was a wonderful obscenity case about a book called The Mouth and Oral Sex. Margaret Drabble gave evidence to the effect that after the Bible and Shakespeare, this was the one book she'd take to a desert island. In his summing up, the judge asked her why we needed oral sex when 'we've gone without it for a thousand years'. Jeremy Hutchinson, defending, began his speech to the jury: 'Poor His Lordship! Poor, poor His Lordship! Gone without oral sex for a thousand years!' The book was acquitted.

....

There's more of yourself in a book than a play. That's why we know all about Dickens and not much about Shakespeare. Ben Jonson murdered people; Marlowe was a spy; Shakespeare just sat in the corner and took notes.

Classic.

--Marshal Zeringue