In literature it seems impossible that someone could be married to the woman they love, McEwan says: “Novels struggle constantly with the business of trying to portray sustained happiness.” Happiness and love is always something fleeting, and thus very precious: “It’s the nature of the human condition that we’re only truly happy in bursts. We can’t be constantly happy.”

Growing older means seeing more and forgiving more, while also losing some of the fabulous energy of the twenties, explains McEwan: “Novelists don’t have to retire at the age of 31, they accumulate more life, more love, more disappointments, more of everything.” Our consciousness is embodied – our thoughts depend on the body. Growing older is all about the slow collapse of the body: “There’s always something worse coming down the track,” he adds with a sly smile. But although times change, the same awkward, fumbling issues remain with us.

Ian McEwan (b. 1948) is an award winning English novelist and screenwriter. McEwan has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction numerous times, winning the award for the novel ‘Amsterdam’ in 1998. In 2001 he published ‘Atonement’, which apart from wining numerous awards, also was adapted into an Oscar-winning film. Among his other books are ‘Saturday’ (2005), ‘On Chesil Beach’ (2007), ‘Solar’ (2010) and ‘Sweet Tooth’ (2012). He was awarded the Jerusalem Prize in 2011. Read more about him here: http://www.ianmcewan.com/

Ian McEwan was interviewed by Synne Rifbjerg at the Louisiana Literature festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark in 2013.

Camera: Klaus Elmer & Mathias Nyholm Schmidt
Edited by: Kamilla Bruus
Produced by: Christian Lund
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2013

Supported by Nordea-fonden