PAULO COELHO

The Winner Stands Alone is unlike any other Paulo Coelho book. What inspired you to write what is almost a crime thriller?

The Winner Stands Alone is not a crime thriller. How could it be — since you know from the start who is the killer? This book is a portrait and I use murder as a symbol, as a metaphor to all the death-craving tendencies that ride in our souls when we chase an illusion.

In The Winner Stands Alone, I wanted to explore the world of fashion and unravel why we tend to adopt dreams that are not our own so easily.

Did you do any kind of homework in order to write on the world of fashion and films?

I remember once being at a gala dinner and next to me was a beautiful woman who was inconsolable. She was at the prime of her life and yet she held this profound hatred towards the other women at the event. What was her sadness and hatred based upon? Fame. She wasn’t as famous as some other women or she wasn’t as rich as other women.

How can I describe the feeling of looking into a beautiful flower and discovering that her scent was actually poisonous? It reminded me of The Sick Rose by William Blake, where he describes this beautiful rose that actually wishes to die in her own flower bed.

Are there any autobiographical elements in the book?

My characters are a snapshot of myself in a given moment of my life. They are the mirrors of my soul.

My literature is much more the result of a paradox than that of an implacable logic. The paradox is the tension that exists in my soul. Like in archery, the paradox is the bow that can be both tense and relaxed. I know that it’s important to have values in life, but I’ve always been more drawn to incoherence, because life is not static but rather like the tides, coming and going.

Real events, memories, longings, other stories — all fuse when I embark on a new story.

What motivates you to write and how do you know when you are ready to write another book?

Regarding the creative process, I only allow myself to write every two years because I feel that I’ve gathered enough emotional energy to come up with a story.

Every time that I write a new book, I am experiencing the sensations of death and rebirth. When I write, I am a woman. I get pregnant from life, and I don’t know what the baby will look like.

My pregnancy cycle takes two years. During this time I don’t take notes, I don’t make plans. The only thing that I know is that life put inside me a seed that will grow when time comes. Then, when the time comes, I sit and write. Every creative act demands a respect for mystery, and I respect the mystery, without trying to understand it.

For my latest book, The Winner Stands Alone, I was inspired by the Cannes Film Festival that I attend every year. There I had the possibility to understand the ‘behind the scenes’ mechanism of the movie and fashion industries.

Can you share some of your favourite mystical ideas that you would like to write on in future?

I can’t say since I’m not currently writing. I don’t like to speculate about what I may or not write. It takes away the ‘momentum’ when I actually sit down and start a story.

Are you interested in the Eastern occult traditions like tantra?

They are a part of human heritage and they are present in any classic magical tradition.

Following one’s dream in life is a recurrent theme in your writing. Which dream are you following?

It’s interesting that you ask this question because I wrote a column about the way I felt about the release of The Witch of Portobello. I was in Lisbon, just hours before the book was released in Portugal and in Latin America. I was walking along the streets of this marvellous city thinking about the moment when the first reader would touch the book on the shelves of the bookstore. I was excited and realised that I was still able, after publishing many books, to feel exactly the same way as during the release of my first book, The Pilgrimage.

Of course, with success, the dimensions change but the inner feeling of sharing my soul with others remains intact. I’m living the dream I had in my youth but I never look upon this dream as something that has an end. As long as I’m able to live, think and love the spark will continue.

Bibliography

The Winner Stands Alone (2008)

The Witch of Portobello (2006)

Like the Flowing River (2006)

The Zahir (2005)

Eleven Minutes (2003)

The Devil and Miss Prym (2000)

Veronika Decides to Die (1998)

The Manual of the

Warrior of Light (1997)

The Fifth Mountain (1996)

By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept (1994)

The Valkyries (1992)

Brida (1990)

The Alchemist (1988)

The Pilgrimage (1987)

Top 3 Calcutta bestsellers

1) The Alchemist

2) Veronika Decides to Die

3) Eleven Minutes

(Source: Crossword and Starmark)

Highlights

Coelho lives in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, when he writes a book. As a ritual, he only starts working on a book after finding a white feather.

In 2008, Coelho entered the Guinness World Records with The Alchemist — the most translated book in the world (67 languages).

Many MBA courses, like The Graduate School of Business of the University of Chicago, recommend the reading of The Alchemist to their students.

Coelho has a drink — hot chocolate with orange — named after him. It is on the menu of Hotel Le Bristol’s bar in Paris, the setting for some of the passages in The Zahir.

In 1985 Coelho wrote the Practical Manual of Vampirism, which is currently out of print. “The reprinting of this book is forbidden because I didn’t succeed in explaining the myth of the vampire very well. It was published in 1986, withdrawn in 1987, and will never be reprinted,” says his website.

Veronika Decides to Die has been turned into a film starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. It has been directed by Emily Young (Kiss Of Life). “I already saw the movie, and I liked it very much,” says Coelho, who didn’t write the screenplay.