Tributes in abundance to Pinter on his winning the Nobel Prize for Literature (see here for articles in the Guardian and Times). On his website, he has a brief statement about being awarded the Prize … and then this:
In 1958 I wrote the following:
"There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false."
I believe that these assertions still make sense and do still apply to the exploration of reality through art. So as a writer I stand by them but as a citizen I cannot. As a citizen I must ask: What is true? What is false?
Pinter's speech, 'Torture and Misery in Name of Freedom', can be read here. Excerpt:
The great poet Wilfred Owen articulated the tragedy, the horror - and indeed the pity - of war in a way no other poet has. Yet we have learnt nothing. Nearly 100 years after his death the world has become more savage, more brutal, more pitiless.
