The Write Stuff - Emily Perkins and Bill Manhire

That's the big question. It's interesting: no one has that problem with music, with art school, but when words get into it, people say 'woah can you teach it?'. I guess my answer would be that people learn to do it, and there are ways that various kinds of teaching can speed up the learning process.

– Bill Manhire on whether you can teach creative writing

I think copying's alright. I think originality is a very dangerous idea too!

– Bill Manhire on the value of reading

A lot of the time I'm interested in writing about things not quite coming off or happening...missed things, and I don't know how well that would work in the theatre.

– Emily Perkins on whether she'd write theatre