Paulo Coelho

Oi Paulo,

I once read that in working with Raul Seixas, you said he taught you how to write about complicated and important subjects in simple ways. What were the specific lessons and techniques that you took from that?

Basically I learnt that the first draft – is the final draft! This means that if you feel that in order to write something you need to be constantly re-read and re-edit, this means you didn’t get it right in the first place.

He also tought me to not only go to the essential but also depart from more baroque ideas so that the message can pass in a crystal clear way.