Yann Martel

You know?

As I said, who would refuse a fellowship to Oxford?

Who would refuse an invitation to the Sydney Writers Festival?

You know, you...

I think he would.

And also when he discovers, you know, the example I use is you're Howard Carter.

You've just discovered King Tut's tomb.

You're going to be late for supper that night.

You know, sometimes we are lured.

I mean, reviews have sometimes said that he's obsessive.

I said, well, wait a second.

You discover a lost Trojan War tradition.

There's so much out there.

There's so much in history that has been...

erased, but there are wisps, there are wisps.

Surely commoners, even those who accepted that they were nothings, in a very hierarchical society, they would accept that they were nobodies, but even a nobody in dying would say, well, I'm a nobody, but it still sucks to die.

It's still painful.

I'm still losing everything.

Those wisps, you know, in the First World War, they were brought to life by poetry.

The poets brought to life the agony of the grunt in the trenches of Verdun.