“Discipline is freedom, you have to be very disciplined. I work Monday to Friday. I don’t work weekends, and I tend to write in two writing sessions in the day.”
Booker Prize-winning author Paul Lynch joins Alison Cowzert to reflect on the intense demands and deeper meaning of a writer’s life.
After 18 months promoting his acclaimed novel Prophet Song, Lynch still has plenty to say — about the discipline of writing, the risks of pursuing it as a vocation, and why, for him, there was never really a choice. “The thing about true vocation is you don’t have a choice,” he says. “To do anything else is to risk a loss of core identity.”
In a wide-ranging conversation, Lynch discusses the role of the artist, the importance of state support for writers, and why Prophet Song — a novel often described as dystopian — is in fact a mirror to the modern world. Arts Matters is supported by HLB Ireland.