Poet Nguyen Quang Thieu expressed, and his answer has attracted public attention: "I also want to tell them that the Nobel Prize is not the destination of a writer. Young writers should not write for the Nobel Prize. We write for a destination that only we know where it needs to be...".
I find the above interesting, so I would like to add a few more lines:
1. Surely, when writing a work, no writer thinks about awards. Writing is a need, a natural and natural job like any other job in the world, nothing important or special. Every job only becomes special when the product - the work is finished, published and welcomed by readers. The anticipation of readers is the writer's purpose, because it means that at that time the work created by the writer has become a social value. Therefore, saying that awards are not the writer's purpose, but awards only come/are only the response of the world of readers elected by a group of readers with literary appraisal qualifications.
2. When writing, the writer is hypnotized, haunted, and tormented by life, urging him to share a heavy mountain of social ideology that is weighing down his mind, or sometimes just demanding to express a scent of strange love that lingers in his consciousness and subconscious. The purpose - the prize always seems to be on the periphery of all assumptions, is that why?
Who knows the outcome to determine the purpose of the dream, or the subconscious? No one! The subject - the writer when holding the pen has only love and sorrow in solitude!
3. There is a funny connection. The story of the writer is similar to the story of a boy/girl who dreams of a husband/wife who is educated, virtuous, and beautiful, but when they get married, most of the guys/girls only get a mediocre appearance, but their love is still passionate, and they have precious children together. There is a story that describes a male character and his lover searching for Linh Son. Going. Going forever, in the end, where did they see Linh Son? They didn't see it, but the search never stopped. Stop, and the dream ends. Stop dreaming, and you'll die. In that journey of love and dreaming, although the character hasn't found the destination, the author has reached the pinnacle of his literary career: the Nobel Prize! That is the writer Cao Hanh Kien (born in 1940, settled in France since 1988) with the novel "Linh Son" (Nobel Prize for Literature in 2000).
It is interesting that a writer sometimes dreams of a high award but in the end can only write mediocre works, and vice versa, whether it comes or not, if it hasn't come yet, if it has gone, then it is better to continue the journey! Love and live, without a place to stay, without a place to ask for, just like that and only like that can give hope to write a masterpiece.
4. As a poet, at this moment, if anyone asks me if I dream of this or that award when I compose, the answer depends on the context, sometimes yes, sometimes no. For example, in a moment of absent-mindedness, or even in a dream, I suddenly come across a poetic idea or a plot, so I sit up and take out a pen and paper to write it down, and then a poem or a short story is born. And the truth is that there have been times when I suddenly come across a work that I quite like in that state of mind. In that case, apart from the real "dream", there is no other dream; and when there is a poetry contest going on and I have the idea of writing a work for the contest. Obviously the purpose of the competition is to aim for an award (recently I wrote a book of poems with this motive...). Winning an award, my career is honored, and I also have a little bonus to spend on family expenses. Isn't that interesting!
5. Oh my... Touching the words "money" and "fame" again? Two words that Vietnamese literature considers taboo. Whoever accidentally touches them is considered a piece of trash! Mr. Tam Nguyen Yen Do - the most literate person in the North at one time once made a sarcastic remark: Greedy for money, many climb on the greasy pole! Haha kha kha...
