En Mars dernier, John Irving a accepté de répondre à des questions posées par des visiteurs du site de son éditeur(http://www.atrandom.com/johnirving)

En voici la version originale en anglais.

1. When you write the beginning of a novel, do you already have the ending in your head or does it only become clear after journeying with the characters?

Yes, I need to know what the end of the story is before I begin a novel. By the time I start to write the novel I don't want to still be inventing the story; I want to be thinking only about the language or the next sentence, and the sentence after that. The process of imagining a whole story takes a year or eighteen months. I always begin with who the characters are and how and when their paths cross and recross.

2. What is your obsession with short people or dwarves (Lilly in THE HOTEL NEW HAMPSHIRE, Owen Meany, and the circus dwarves in A SON OF THE CIRCUS)?

I have no obsession with short people, at least not that I'm aware of. Often my characters are physically marked in some way---that is more of a literary device (very Dickensian) than it in a serious interpretation of human existence. Characters in my novels often have their specialness signaled in a physical form. Owen's voice (in addition to his size), Larch's sexual abstinence (and Jenny's, in GARP), Melony's physical strength and unattractiveness. Lilly and Fuzzy Stone are both early terminal cases (to use a term from GARP); like 0wen Meany, Fuzzy is described as being born too soon, the light actually passing through his thin ears.

3. What are the most common problems that translators have with your works in bringing them to other countries?

Certain Americanisms, expressions, slang, vulgarisms, expressions like the Under Toad, which rely on strictly English misunderstandings---naturally.These give translators trouble. But the success of my novels in translations suggests that these problems are essentially small and surmountable. I sell more books in Germany than I do in the U.S. and Canada combined; I sell almost as many copies in France as I do in the U.S. And A WIDOW FOR ONE YEAR sold as many copies in the Netherlands as it did in the United States. More than half my writing income is from translations. I work pretty closely withmany of my translators. Because translators have to read a work so closely they often catch errors that I and my American editor and copy-editor have missed.

4. Do your characters ever inspire or shock you? Which of your characters have surprised you most by their outcome?

No, my characters never surprise me or shock me. I have created them; I know them better than I know my own immediate family members or closest friends. As for "inspiration," I think readers are the inspired ones. I calculate everything, revise constantly, move a novel ahead about three or four pages a day. The process of writing a novel is such a slow one, for me, that there are no shocks or surprises---except (I hope) for my readers. I plan the surprises. I am not surprised.

5. An issue of CREATIVE SCREENWRITING discussed an early draft of THE CIDER HOUSE RULES where Homer and Rose have the relationship that occurs between Angel and Rose in the finished book. Is this in fact true and if so why did you decide against it?

There were 40 or 50 drafts of the screenplay of THE CIDER HOUSE RULES. In an early version, I decided to eliminate Candy and Homer's love affair and have Homer fall in love with Rose Rose instead. In the novel, Homer's son falls in love with Rose Rose, but Homer doesn't have a son in the movie---the film takes place in two years, not fifteen. But that version was too bleak. Homer returns to St. Cloud's without ever having known a love relationship. (Rose Rose doesn't love him.) Lasse Hallstrom reinstated the Homer-Candy relationship in proper relationship to the whole. He returned the film closer to the book. I had earlier resisted that love affair because I felt it would dominate the story---it would take away from the more important relationships, Homer with Dr. Larch, Rose Rose with her father.

6. When you're done writing for the day, are you able to put your characters down, or do they generally live with you?

I write about seven or eight hours a day. I daydream about the characters the rest of the time, certainly, and when I wake up in the night, I think about them then. I think about them all the time.

7. Some authors say they do a lot of research. Others infer the details from a loose knowledge of a subject, coupled with instinct. Do you tend toward one or the other, or both?

 Both. I do research when there's something I need to know. Medicine in orphanage hospitals, abortion medicine, orthopedic medicine in India, police work in Holland, prostitution in Amsterdam, granite quarrying, American exiles living in Canada during and after the Vietnam War. I don't feel a novel has to have research in it, but I never shy away from it, either.

8. How do you think Garp would feel about the century just passed?

 Garp is a character in a novel. He exists in and of the moment. He has no thoughts on the century just passed. Frankly, neither do I. The end of a century is an arbitrary demarcation. As for literature, the century I most admire is the 19th---long past. I suspect that the next ten years will resemble the last ten. I'm not interested in the attention given to the end of the century, or to the passing of the last thousand years.

9. Has your approach to writing women changed or evolved through the years?

 My approach to writing women is no different than my approach to writing men or children: all characters have to be vivid, realistic, make an emotional and psychological connection with the reader. Characterization is a duty of the novelist. I see nothing about it that is gender-related. If women writers cannot create believable male characters, they are not good writers; if men can't create believable women, they aren't good writers, either. Who is the beat adulteress ever created? Emma Bovary. A guy created her. Who is the best vengeful lover (male) in all literature? Heathcliff---created by a woman.

10. Do you think Garp is a feminist?

 A feminist is a changeable term, too broad to mean anything anymore. No, Garp was not a feminist---he knew and liked women. He had a strong mother and a strong wife. I am not political about characters.

 11. Do you plan to bring your own adaptation of A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY to the screen?

 I have no interest in a film of OWEN MEANY. I believe that the nature of a religious miracle cannot be captured in the two-dimensional world of film. I can write about Owen as a miracle through the eyes of a deranged "witness"---Johnny Wheelwright. Johnny is flawed. He believes in Owen. The reader may choose to believe in the religious nature of what happens to Owen, or not. In a film, you have no choice: what you see is what you're told to believe. That is why I had no interest in writing a screenplay of OWEN MEANY myself, and why I saw no reason to prevent Mark Steven Johnson from writing and directing "Simon Birch," which was suggested by A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY. I asked Mark not to call his film "Owen Meany" because it was so different from the novel; and he was and is an honorable gentleman---he agreed.

 12. What kind of music do you listen to?

 I don't listen to music very much, unless it's something my kids put on and then I am basically appalled. I like Bob Dylan, I like Bach. in the car, I play country-westernmusic, which is sort of like reading the newspapers. I do pay attention to the musical scores of certain movies that I like. I think Rachael Portman's original score for THE CIDER HOUSE RULES is brilliant. I play the CD when I'm working out in the gym. It's like seeing the movie without a screen. I love doing that. But that's pretty rare, and I think it is well-deserved that Rachel got an Academy Award nomination for that score.

13. You write women so brilliantly. Who have your greatest female influences been in terms of influencing your work?

 Writing women...that question again! The women I have known---a strong grandmother, a strong mother, two strong wives, good women friends---have contributed nothing I can see reflected in the characters I write about. I am a fiction writer, which to my thinking means that my primary responsibility is making up a character who is more complete and motivated and understandable than any so-called real person I know. I don't rely on realpeople for my novels. If I ever had, I would have been sued. More importantly, the people I know aren't interesting enough to put in my novels. This is no insult to the people I know; I mean simply that people in novels, in my novels, anyway, have to have more interesting and complex and troubled lives than most of the people I know.

 14. What would it mean to you to win an Academy Award?

 I think being nominated for an Oscar is more important than winning one. I was nominated by my peers, by other screenwriters. The entire Academy---actors, directors, producers, etc.---will vote for who wins. How meaningful is it to be nominated? Very! The seven nominations for THE CIDER HOUSE RULES, most importantly Best Picture and Best Director, mean that the broadest possible audience will see the film. That is hugely gratifying---especially in light of the fact that it took fourteen years to get the film made. Of course, I would like to win an Oscar---who wouldn't? But the honor to be in the company of five best (in any category) is irreplaceable. I am very proud of the nomination. I am looking forward to the event itself. At my age---and given that my day job is being a novelist---I can't expect to ever get to be there again. I've written nine novels, have almost finished a tenth. I've written three screenplays, but THE CIDER HOUSE RULES is the first to be produced. It's a thrill and a privilege to go to the Oscars.

 15. If you could meet with any three living individuals, who would they be?

 I don't wish to meet any living individuals. I know enough people already. I am always happy to meet other writers. Of course, it's nice to meet people who've done remarkable things, but I'm not sure how valuable it is. I mean, of course, it's fun. I met Kirk Douglas recently, and I loved that---we are both members in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, we have that in common, and I always admired him as an actor. I enjoyed having lunch with Charlton Heston recently. While we are politically far apart (in most people's eyes), we were on common ground on the issue of abortion rights---we both believe in them. That was interesting. I just don't think about this question of meeting people. I meet enough people.

 16. What is your definition of fiction? At what point does something autobiographical have to be altered, in your mind, to be fiction?

 I don't think autobiographical fiction is interesting because it is so very limited. I imagine big novels. Period. If there are autobiographical details (mostly small things) that I can use, I will use them, but they're not ever what's important in my novels. The whole autobiographical question bores me.

 17. In my AP Language Composition class we have an authors dinner and I chose to be you. We have to bring a food item that represents our author. What is your favorite food, or what food do you think represents you best?

 Tomatoes.

 18. I teach dyslexic children and understand you have this learning disability. How did you overcome it?

 Dyslexia is a term that means many things to many people. I had (still have) some kind of learning disability. It made going to school hard. I don't know how I overcame it except by wanting to read and write, and recognizing that these things would simply take me more time to do than they took my friends. I don't complain about being a slow writer or reader. I like writing and reading slowly. It was not easy to be slow as a student, however, when you are judged by how quickly you can absorb and retain a wide range of information. I could never be a good student. I don't have any difficulty being a good writer. And now that I'm not in school, I'm a good reader---just a slow one.

 19. What is God's plan for YOU?

 I am not especially religious, personally. I go to church rarely. I don't presume to know if God exists---sometimes I think so, sometimes not. I would never presume to guess what God's plan for me is, or even if God has a plan. I find religion interesting. The subject of belief is a tantalizing one. I am intellectually curious about it. I have an open mind about it. I dislike loudmouthed believers and atheists about equally. I think belief is a personal thing.

 20. What role does religion play in your life, if any?

 As I said above, I go to church rarely. When I do, it's because something about the experience moves me. I have two good friends who are ministers; I know other ministers and I generally like them. Sometimes I pray, but not regularly. I pray for the health and happiness of my children. Is this really of interest to anyone but me? I don't imagine so.

 21. Your books, essentially, seem to be about grace and acceptance. What influences helped mold this outlook in your writing, and perhaps in your life?

 Accept the things you can not change, right? Who said that? We1l, just because you have to accept those things doesn't mean that they have to please you. I do not very gracefully accept things I don't like in real life. In my novels, maybe some degree of graceful acceptance is perceived as a virtue, and sometimes certainly it is, but, personally, I tend to rant and rave about the things I detest, like most people.

 22. What is your favorite of all your books, and why?

 I have written an Introduction to Charles Dickens's GREAT EXPECTATIONS, the Bantam Classic paperback edition. That Introduction is also published in a collection of my shorter works, TRYING TO SAVE PIGGY SNEED, which is published by Ballantine. That essay is the best answer to this question that exists. Go read it.

 23. If Dickens showed up for one day, what would you a) hope to get out of him and, b) who would you want to introduce him to?

 This is one of those speculative "real life" questions that have no meaning to me. I would take Dickens to see a good movie. If Dickens were alive today, he would still be a novelist but he would also be a screenwriter and probably a director. He had a dramatic interest, which today would not be satisfied in the theater. He would probably be making movies and writing novels. But I don't really think about questions of this kind.

 24. What are your thoughts on the present political situation in Austria, as it regards Joerg Haider?

 I don't know much about Austria right now. I was in Vienna when the news about Waldheim's past was circulated, and it was disconcerting to see how he was embraced for this by the Austrians. Vienna has always struck me as a small, provincial town with a small town's xenophobia. Austrians have a poor record of accepting "others." Even the way they say "Auslander"---foreigner---has an edge to it that's derogatory. I stopped skiing there some years ago because the Austrians are ruder than other Europeans I have skied with. I don't know why. I don't live in Vienna anymore---I haven't lived there in a long time, and I won't live there again. I don't think about Austria much anymore.

 25. Is wrestling superior to all other sports and if so, why?

 No, wrestling isn't necessarily "superior" to other sports. Any athlete who dedicates himself or herself to any sport should not be insulted by hearing someone say his or her sport is "superior." I liked wrestling better than any other sport. I loved it. I competed as a wrestler for twenty years. I coached the sport until I was forty-seven. I retired then (that was ten years ago), and I have no connection to wrestling anymore. I try to see some matches every year. I go to the NCAA tournament when I can. I will always love wrestling for the discipline it taught me. And I will also love the sport itself. But I know people who are as passionate about tennis or skiing as I was about wrestling. Now I'm just a spectator. I follow what happens in the sport. I have many wrestling and ex-wrestler friends, but I'm not part of it to the degree that I was.

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