According to The Guardian , Norwegian author Jon Fosse - this year's Nobel Prize in Literature winner - has said that his early books were "quite poorly received". If he had listened to critics, he would have stopped writing 40 years ago.
Fosse - author of the novels Septology , Aliss at the Fire , Melancholy and A Shining , was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in October "for his plays and inventive prose, which give voice to the unspeakable".
However, after receiving the award, he was more moved than anything, by readers who frankly shared that his article "saved their lives".
“I always knew that writing could save lives, even my own,” Fosse said. “And if my writing could help save someone else’s life, nothing could make me happier.”
Jon Fosse reflects on his writing process and life (Photo: Fredrik Persson/EPA).
Fosse used the speech to reflect on his life and recounted an episode at school when he was "overcome by sudden fear".
He ran outside and later told the class that he "had to go to the bathroom". Feeling that fear had taken away his language, he told himself "I have to get it back". Fosse found that writing gave him "a sense of security" and "dissolved fear".
The 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature winner drew a comparison between music and writing, explaining that as a teenager he moved from "being involved in music " - at one point he aspired to be a rock guitarist - to writing.
“In my writing, I tried to create something that I experienced when I played music,” he said.
Fosse went on to discuss his writing process. “When I write, at a certain point I always have the feeling that the text is already written, somewhere out there, not inside me, and I just need to get it out before the text disappears,” he said.
He added that the fact that the Septology novel does not contain a single period "is not an invention".
"I just wrote the novel like that, in one go, without stopping," he said.
The novel is about an old painter, Asle, who lives alone on the southwest coast of Norway and reflects on his life.
Jon Fosse was born in 1959 in Haugesund, Norway. His first novel, Raudt, svart ( Red, Black ) was published in 1983. In 1989, he received critical acclaim for his novel Naustet ( The Boathouse ).
He then went on to write his first play in 1992 - Nokon kjem til å kome ( Someone Will Come ). In 1994, the play Og aldri skal vi skiljast was performed at the National Theatre in Bergen.
Fosse composed in Nynorsk (also known as New Norwegian). This is one of two standard varieties of Norwegian, spoken by about 27% of the population.
He is the most performed living playwright in Europe, having been translated into 40 languages. A hotel in Oslo, Norway, has a suite named after him.
In addition to writing plays and novels, Jon Fosse is also a translator.
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