STAYING INTERESTED
In 1995, Andrea Stretton interviewed me for the SBS Books programme. We were at Montsalvat and at one point in the interview, she asked me: observed: "You've written and performed poetry, written plays that have been published and produced, made several documentaries, written an award-winning television series, been a frequent reviewer of books for a national newspaper... You're not an easy writer to pigeon-hole, Billy Marshall Stoneking. Is that a problem?"
"Not usually."
"So what drives you?"
A PAUSE.
"Boredom... I mean, If I felt I had to confine myself to simply writing poems and nothing else, or making films and nothing else, or being a critic... y'know, for me, I can't imagine it. Anything gets stale if you do it long enough. So for me it's kind of like taking a break, getting away from the poetry, the play or whatever, but without taking a break from the writing."
"So you have this eclectic streak?"
"I don't know that I'd call it that. It's more like keeping everything fresh, and alive, which means not doing too much of any one thing for too long. And having the faith, or at least the understanding, to recognise the connections that exist between everything you write and do. The poetry informs the non-fiction, the non-fiction informs the plays, and so on. I guess all I can say is I'm just trying to keep interested in living."