Another Great Insight from the Nobel Laureate.
What should we, as writers of this era, be mindful of?
Here’s a summary of Sir Kazuo Ishiguro’s reflections on writing and time.
For those who haven’t seen the interview, I highly recommend watching it!
Here, Kazuo Ishiguro reflects on the advice he would give his younger self as a writer, acknowledging that novelists tend to peak between ages 33 and 47, and that his younger self might have been a better writer than he is now.
He offers both encouragement and a warning.
On the positive side, he predicts that literary boundaries—between national traditions, genres, and the divide between popular and serious literature—will increasingly dissolve, which he sees as a healthy development.
However, he cautions against assuming that the liberal humanist values he was raised with will remain dominant. Writers aiming for lasting relevance must recognize that future readers may hold fundamentally different views on how societies should function.
Full Transcript of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Response:
Waterstones: If you could go back 20 years and give yourself any advice, what would it be?
Kazuo Ishiguro:
“I have this rather unpopular theory about novelists as opposed to other kinds of writers—that novelists peak somewhere between the ages of 33 and 47. If I go back 20 years, I’m not that far off my peak. Whereas now, I’m a kind of a donkey in the field, so I wouldn’t presume to give any kind of writing advice to this other guy because he will be much better than I am now.However, I do know what has happened in the last 20 years and the way things are going, so I’ll say two things to this person—one quite encouraging, the other more like a warning.
The encouraging thing I’d say is that in the little corner of the world where you’re functioning—the world of books—many boundaries will be breaking down. And this is rather a healthy thing. The boundaries between national literary traditions, the boundaries between genres, the boundaries between popular and serious literature will start to dissolve. The guy from 20 years ago would be rather pleased with that.
The warning: don’t assume that the liberal humanist values that you were brought up with are going to always be prevalent. Don’t assume that the readership you’re writing for will always share the same values that you perhaps take for granted right now.
If your ambition is to have books that will speak down the years, your books will have to move and connect with people who have very, very different assumptions about how societies should operate.”
Original post is here @waterstones
Twenty years ago, Kazuo Ishiguro published his genre-spanning modern classic, Never Let Me Go, and to celebrate its new anniversary editions we wanted to ask him one thing. If he could go back twenty years and offer himself any advice, what would it be?
Tap to shop the gorgeous new hardback or paperback editions featuring a new introduction from the author.
First published on Substack on Mar 15, 2025 (JST). Archived here as part of the Fabio Caipirinha permanent archive (published on this site: Oct 15, 2026). Original: https://fabiocaipirinha.substack.com/p/sir-kazuo-ishiguro-on-writing-a-lesson
Cover image: Dyrham Park, an English country house in Gloucestershire (CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons — source)
