Episode 85 - DBC Pierre: Part 4

The fourth and final part of DBC Pierre's conversation with This Writing Life podcast begins with a discussion of fraud. Pierre writes about this at the start of his excellent writing guide, Release the Bats, and hit headlines following his Man Booker victory for seemingly defrauding a former friend out of his house. After some Jeffrey Archer preamble, Pierre responds ('I think I can be concise'):

• 'There are in the liar and the bullshitter a great many qualities which are useful to fiction writing...It is incredibly useful to have been a bullshitter, but at a certain point you need to have made the distinction between what is and isn't.'
• 'I wasn't a happy fraud...You need to remain ignorant for that to work...'
• 'People bullshit because their worlds aren't good enough...'
• 'Life's too complicated to be disappointing'
• living up to Vernon God Little: Pierre on his life of writing
• parties, agents and writing with people looking over your shoulder
• the future (and beer at the Faber Social)

Release the Bats is published by Faber & Faber and can be bought: here.