Josephine HART ... The Truth About Love (2009)

JOSEPHINE HART, the author of The Truth About Love (Virago, February 2009), on being Irish, poetry and death. Hart is best known as the author of the novel, Damage (1991), which was made into a film by Louis Malle, starring Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche.

ON BEING IRISH: “It’s a huge advantage. People have a reaction to the Irish which is usually positive. When I hear my voice on tape I die, but people are always saying how much they like an Irish accent. It’s undeserved—a card for life.”

ON POETRY: “The poet in Ireland is an iconic figure, partly because in our history we have so many poets who involved themselves in politics—the Easter Rising proclamation was signed by poets—so that’s very much part of our culture and it’s one of the reasons I started doing poetry readings in London more than 20 years ago. I want to make poetry a real power in people’s lives.”

ON DEATH: “We are born to die, but within that fact is also something of great beauty. Because life is a terminal experience, therein lies our reverence for it and for the lives of others and that, to me, is almost the beginning of moral behaviour towards other people.”

Source: The Scotsman