Interview
Interviewer: good afternoon everyone, hope you are all having an amazing friday and we are here to make it even better by inviting a special guest. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for John green.
John Green: Thank you for having me here today
Interviewer: Before we get deeper into the story of your life as a writer, we would like to know a bit more about you.
John Green: Well, my name is John Green as all of you might know. I am 40 years old and I was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in United States. I spent my childhood in Orlando, Florida. I was married on May 21, 2006 with my wife Sarah Urist Green. I have one son named Henry Green who is eight years old right now and a daughter whose name is Alice Green. She is only five years old right now. I think that is all I would like to tell about myself.
Interviewer: It sounds as if you have a really busy life with you family. Other than your personal life, would you mind telling us where you received your education?
John Green: Well yes, I attended Indian Springs School in Indian Springs Village in Alabama, which served as the basis for Culver Creek Preparatory School in Looking For Alaska. I graduated from Kenyon College in 2000 with a degree in English and Religious Studies.
Interviewer: I noticed that you mentioned the well-written, “Looking for Alaska” which has received many awards and positive reviews from all teens who have read it. How did you come up with the book’s unusual structure?
John Green: The novel “Looking For Alaska” was the first novel I wrote and I worked on it for 18 months before September 11, 2011. After the days the 9/11 occurred, I was alone in my apartment in Chicago watching the commercial-free news 24 hours a day. On the television, people kept saying that it was the defining moment for the generations of Americans, that we would remember the world in terms of before and after the 9/11. Then, I thought how time is usually measured that way: Christians date from before and after the birth of Christ. Muslims date from before and after the hijrah. We tend to reflect back on the most significant moment in our past which becomes the dividing line between what we were and what we are now. I had the desire to ponder and reflect on the way we measure and think of time. When I wrote the novel, “Looking for Alaska”, I created a moment that changed the lives of the characters in the novel forever and this redefines their understanding of the world. I wanted the significance of the moment to be central to the novel’s structure; this is how I came up with the novel’s unusual yet unique structure.
Interviewer: Just like you created a before- and-after moment in novel, was there a moment that played the same role in your life that redefined your understanding of the world?
John Green: Absolutely! I worked as a chaplain at a children’s hospital and all the fiction I have written since working at the hospital has in some way echoed some feeling, experience, or question which aroused while I was at the hospital. In many ways, it was a before-and-after moment in my life.
Interviewer: How do you handle the pressure when your going onto the next project?
John Green: Well it is different, but at the same time, I try to be conscious to the fact that it’s a great gift. It’s a great gift to have readers, it’s a great gift to know that the next book that I write will have readers, that it will get published, that’s a wonderful, wonderful blessing and that wasn’t in my life for a long time, so i’m grateful for it and will be when I write more novels.
Interviewer: What comes first to you, the characters or the journey that will take place in the story?
John Green: I always write my stories depending on the characters. So when I am thinking about writing, I think about people and what their lives together be like, and what might happen to them and every piece in that process every piece.
Interviewer: Finish the sentence, “If I have learned anything from writing, I’ve learned to…”
John Green: To try to be kind to myself and to other people. I really think that writing ultimately is an act of empathy, so that’s what I’ve learned.
Interviewer: What advice would you give to people who are too shy to put out their work?
John Green: I would tell them to not worry about what other people think and that if you are proud of your work, then there’s nothing to be afraid of to let other people read it. Also before showing people your work, you are going to perfect it so there’s no need to be nervous. Everyone has a voice that needs to be heard and if it’s through writing, then write.
I would also suggest them to “Read, read, READ!” I really think that reading is just as important as writing when you’re trying to be a writer because it’s the only apprenticeship we have, it’s the only way of learning how to write a story.” – John Green. Write for the right reasons. Don’t make stuff because you want to make money — it will never make you enough money. And don’t make stuff because you want to get famous — because you will never feel famous enough. Make gifts for people — and work hard on making those gifts in the hope that those people will notice and like the gifts. Allow yourself to make mistakes. I delete about 90% of my first drafts so it doesn’t really matter much if on a particular day I write beautiful and brilliant prose that will stick in the minds of my readers forever, because there’s a 90% chance I’m just gonna delete whatever I write anyway. I find this hugely liberating.” . Foster Empathy. But in truth all fiction is an attempt at empathy: When I write, I’m trying to imagine what it’s like to be someone else more than I’m trying to express what it’s like to be me.
Interviewer: thank you for being here with us
John Green: Thank you for inviting me.
My Emulation (An Haiku Poem)
All our labour wrecked,
It has been returned to dust,
Our worth has decreased.
(Chose a line from “The Fault In Our Stars” and the line is “All our labour has been returned to dust”)
