“The blank page is sort of a slightly irritating boss.” English David Mitchell, author of the best-selling novel ‘Cloud Atlas’, here explains why it’s okay to doodle if you’re stuck, and how pushing yourself is the ultimate way of moving your novel forward.

 “If you’ve got no words, fine, just draw something.” When you’re working on a novel, it’s essential to be able to ask the right questions in order to progress, and to act – in one way or the other – rather than to wait: “You can’t just sit around on your fat arse waiting to be inspired, waiting for creativity – it’s time to get to work.”

David Mitchell (b. 1969) is an English novelist. Three of his novels have been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize – ‘number9dream’ (2001), ‘Cloud Atlas’ (2004) and ‘The Bone Clocks’ (2014). ‘Cloud Atlas’ was subsequently made into a film (2012). In 2003 Mitchell was selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists, and in 2007 he was listed among Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in The World. Mitchell, who in recent years has also written opera libretti, lived several years in Japan but now resides in Ireland with his wife and children.

David Mitchell was interviewed by Kasper Bech Dyg in connection to the Louisiana Literature festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark in August 2014.    

Camera: Mathias Nyholm

Edited and produced by: Kasper Bech Dyg

Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2015

Supported by Nordea-fonden