An Older Interview: Who’s Afraid of Lualahati Bautista?, Part 1

Here’s an interview from 1999. Catchy title.

You can go to the original Philippine Daily Inquirer page here.

Who’s afraid
of Lualhati Bautista?
By Abet Zialcita
http://www.inquirer.net/saturday/jun99wk2/spc_3.htm

WHEN I was leafing through the pages of her novel, I couldn’t help but wonder about the writer behind the scenes that were playing in my mind. The lead character was a woman who didn’t have qualms about her values. She was outspoken and oftentimes candid. She could even be comical at times, without meaning to. And how she loved! When I decided that I wanted to produce her ‘’Bata, Bata, Paano Ka Ginawa?'’ onstage, therefore, I told myself that I would soon discover how much of Lea Bustamante was in Lualhati Bautista. I guessed right. Here are excerpts from our conversation:

AZ: How long have you been writing?
LB: I started writing when I was 16. By then, I already had a published work. But I had been writing stories since I learned how to read and write.

Ideas
What inspires you to write? Where do you get your ideas for your stories?
Iba-iba. I get inspired by what I see. There was a time when I was really moved when a child was run over by a speeding car. I felt at once that I wanted to write about what had transpired in his life before the accident.
Siguro, madaldal akong tao. I like telling stories. When I was still studying, madalas akong pagsabihan na ‘’very talkative'’ ako. My teacher would often tell me to keep my mouth shut. Then I finally decided to just write down the things that I could not blurt out.

So what happened was, the things you wanted to say but couldn’t, you translated into writing.
Yes, I wanted to tell stories. There were many things I wanted to share with the others. Like when you discover or experience something new, and you’d like to share it with a friend.

Can you recall your very first published work?
It was about a childless couple. They were able to adopt a child from the streets.

Was that inspired by a real incident?
I don’t remember. At that time, so many things were running in my mind. Wild things, even. Until now, when I’m all by myself, many things still enter my mind. Like, what would happen if I was given a hundred thousand pesos each day and that at the end of the day, by twelve midnight, I should have already spent all of it?

Voracious reader
Were you a voracious reader when you were young?
Lumalaki ako sa Liwayway. I read a lot of komiks and listened to radio dramas. I guess, the last one I had to, because my mom was a lover of soap operas.

Were your dad or mom also into writing?
My dad was a poet and a singer. He was a recording artist.

He must have influenced you in some ways.
Oh, yes. He also composed songs. He was a musician–he could play the piano, the guitar, the violin, the trombone. My mom couldn’t find time to write. But the few times that she did, she also displayed some flair and style.
In your formative or later years as a writer, was there any author or literary piece you admired most?
When I was young, I liked reading the writers of ‘’Liwayway.'’ They were my early models in writing. I liked their language, I envied the fact that they could narrate stories effectively. I developed a crush on them. And I got married to one of those writers!

Your husband was a writer before?
He still is. He writes stage plays. He’s more of a theater artist than a novelist. He’s in his element when he’s involved in the theater.

Stage actor
Is he also an actor onstage?
Yes, that’s in addition to also being the scriptwriter and director as well.
What about you, have you also been involved in the theater?
Not really. I’m more of a writer. I have the moods of a writer. Like, people would ask me why I shun award ceremonies. But I really hate dressing up and applying make-up! When they tell me to go up the stage for an award, I tell them that I am being penalized for a job well done.

But, as you were saying before, you won’t describe yourself as anti-social.
Ah, hindi. Hindi naman. I’m simply more inclined to join the family and a few close friends. But, of course, if I really have to attend an important function, I can easily put on the mien of a seasoned politician.
There was a time when we were in New York and we had to attend an after-dinner party. I was in T-shirt, maong jeans and rubber shoes. And then I saw the guests: the men in coat and tie, and the women in their stiletto shoes. Everyone else appeared to be taller than me but I didn’t allow myself to be intimidated.
What I did was, I took off my shoes, sat down on the carpet, drank a lot and made a lot of noise. After a while, the others were also taking off their coats and shoes, and everybody really started having fun.

Chito Roño says that you’re a writer who has successfully transcended almost all literary types of work–from novels to movie scripts to short stories to tele-plays to komiks…
Ang sabi ko nga sa kanya, e, bright ako! (Laughs).

Different literary types
From among these different literary types you do, is one you like more than the others?
Gusto ko silang lahat– for different reasons. Like, for instance, when you’re writing for TV, it is easier since the production costs are not as big as those in the movies. The movies, on the other hand, are also fun to write but they entail greater collective work among many people. By contrast, when I do a novel, it is mine and mine alone.

You have full control over the material.
Yes, but writing for the movies pays higher. With the novels, you only get paid the moment they are published, the moment they start selling. That’s what happened to ‘’Bata, Bata…,'’ ‘’Gapo'’ and ‘’Dekada ‘70.'’ They are selling up to now. Although, when I wrote these novels, I didn’t think of money. I wrote them for the Palanca competition. I wanted to win. But then, I had to momentarily drop the other things I had to do.

What is your writing style? Do you, say, start work on a novel and then at mid-point, leave it for a while and start another one?

Itutuloy…