JMW: Hello.
This is Jean Marie Ward for BuzzyMag.com With
me today is
Dr. Neil Gaiman, the winner of this year's
Ray Bradbury Award from the
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
for his script for "Doctor
Who."
When you were starting out as a journalist,
did you ever think you'd
ever wind up writing scripts for something
which I believe is as
much a part of British childhood as Captain
Kangaroo is to
American children?
Neil Gaiman: No, I genuinely didn't.
I never thought I'd get any of this.
I think
when I was a journalist, as far as I went
in terms of hopes and
dreams was the idea of maybe one day getting
a fiction book
published with my name on it.
JMW: You did that pretty quickly.
Neil Gaiman: I did.
I got there fairly rapidly and then got to
do all the other
things I wanted to do, like comics published
that were decent.
JMW: Well, they were more than decent.
Neil Gaiman: And then took me a little while,
and then of course, by the time that
I was getting published, "Doctor Who" was
off the air and stayed
off the air for almost 20 years.
Once it came back, I fell in
love with what they were doing with it and
was thrilled when
they invited me to maybe come play in their
sandbox.
JMW: It's always nice when somebody invites
you.
How did you get into
comics?
"The Sandman" is such a classic now.
I mean, not only is
the story and the way Western and Eastern
mythology are woven
into it is something rather remarkable, but
it's one of those
few books or one of those few works, I should
say, that did
something remarkable.
They took comics off the [book] when you
won, I believe it was the Hugo?
Neil Gaiman: World Fantasy.
They made it so that comics could no longer
win those
literary awards any more.
JMW: That is rather remarkable to me.
Do you feel like you want to go back
to comics?
What do you want to do now?
You're a novelist.
You
are writing scripts.
Your novels and your stories have become
wonderful movies.
You've done a groundbreaking comic, writing
scripts for "Doctor Who."
What do you want to do next?
Neil Gaiman: Everything.
I want to carry on doing everything.
I want to do more
everything.
There's stuff that I haven't done yet that
I'd
really like to.
I'd like to do a musical.
I'd definitely like to
do some theater because I really haven't done
much theater.
But
I most just like to carry on doing everything.
I like the fact
that nobody seems to mind.
I'm allowed to do kids' books, and
I'm allowed to do adult books.
I'm allowed to do comics, and I'm
allowed to do drama
JMW: Other than the fact that they all have
your name on it, what do you
think is the thematic thread that binds your
work together?
Neil Gaiman: Oh, I have no idea, and I don't
worry about it.
They all come out of
my head.
What I'm desperately always trying to do is
go, "Okay,
I'm not going to repeat myself," and I will
go and do something
different.
I'll go and do something new.
And then academics and
critics then gather and say, "This fits in
exactly with the rest
of your [inaudible 4:00].
It has the same themes."
And I go,
"Oh, bugger.
I wasn't actually trying to repeat myself."
So I'm the worst person to go into what are
the themes.
Probably
there is a celebration of the human imagination
involved.
Beyond
that . . . and the power of story.
JMW: Definitely the power of story.
Neil Gaiman: Beyond that, your guess is as
good as mine.
JMW: I have no guesses.
I'm just asking the question.
Speaking of
academics though, you recently received a
rather unusual honor.
I mentioned Dr. Neil Gaiman from the university
in Philadelphia,
I believe?
Neil Gaiman: University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
I did their commencement
address and found myself getting a doctorate
two days ago.
JMW: How did it feel to be wearing the academic
robes?
Neil Gaiman: Like a fraud.
Like an absolute, utter, and complete fraud.
But I've
now hung around enough academics to know that
they all feel like
that.
So the fact that I got to feel like a fraud,
it was the
glory of giving my speech was [inaudible 5:12].
I never finished
school.
I didn't go to university because I wanted
to be a
writer, and the idea of another four years
of education before I
was allowed to go and write was just something
that I found
stifling, frustrating, and I went off and
I wrote.
So I knew
that I was a fraud, and I don't think there's
anything wrong in
that.
JMW: I think everybody feels like a fraud
at one point in their life.
Frequently it tells you to do more.
Neil Gaiman: I hope so.
JMW: What are you working on now, because
I know your fans want to know?
Neil Gaiman: What am I working on now?
I'm working on the pilot episode of
"American Gods."
I'm working on a novel.
JMW: It's going to be a TV series?
Neil Gaiman: For HBO yes.
JMW: Oh, that's wonderful.
Neil Gaiman: And I'm working on the pilot.
They liked the pilot episode.
And I'm
working on a book called "Lettie Hempstock's
Ocean," which is a
very small book about a girl called Lettie
Hempstock, who has a
pond in her garden which she says is the ocean.
JMW: Oh.
Well, it might be by the end of the story
if your story runs true
to form.
Neil Gaiman: It may well be.
JMW: It may well be.
Anything you'd like to add to your fans?
Neil Gaiman: [inaudible 6:37] writing a "Doctor
Who" episode, if you're me and you
started out watching "Doctor Who" when you
were just three years
old, it's an honor and a privilege to be allowed
to be part of
this thing that has been affecting lives for
50 years.
And I
love that I got to make [inaudible 7:01] to
make people happy.
JMW: That's great.
Thank you so much Neil.
Neil Gaiman: You are so welcome.
