Interview

A transcript of an interview with Tim Winton on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Enough Rope hosted by Andrew Denton, in which Tim discusses many aspects from his life including how he nearly drowned when he was nine and how he avoided the school bullies by telling taller and taller tales

Tim Winton is consistently voted Australia's most beloved novelist. In books such as Cloudstreet, Dirt Music and his new collection of short stories, The Turning, he's shown an exquisite feel for the language, the smell, the very pulse of Australia. It's never easy to coax him away from the shores of WA, the source of so much of his inspiration, and we're delighted to have done so tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, Tim Winton.

Andrew Denton: And that's it. You can go now.

Tim: Oh, good. I'm out.

Andrew: Now, Tim, welcome.

Tim: Thanks, mate.

Andrew: You write so much about the sea in your books. And, you know, a lot of kids, when they're teenagers, they're into fast cars or getting off their face, but you were into the sea.

Tim: Mm-hm.

Andrew: What's down there?

Tim: Well, less than you think and more than you think. Do you know what I mean? When you're a teenager you feel overcome by all these problems. Everything seems enormous. Everything seems big. You seem tiny and bewildered. So, in a way, jumping into the ocean and diving deep was a way of getting over myself, you know, a way of leaving myself, not worrying that I wasn't tall enough, that I wasn't skinny enough, that I wasn't smart ...