Patrick White Interviews

INTERVIEWS

Margaret Olley, Portrait in the Mirror (1948)

Novels | Plays | Short Stories | Memoir | Screenplay | Essays | Music | Poems | Letters | Speeches | Interviews | Other works| Unpublished works

Included here are details of any interviews I have located, whether in print, television, or radio. No doubt this list is non-exhaustive.

The young White was famously reticent to discuss his personal life, giving only a half dozen interviews in each of the 1950s and 1960s. However with the outbreak of the Vietnam War, and especially once he received the Nobel Prize in 1973, the author found increasing joy in sharing his worldview. It has been noted that White was particularly gregarious when it came to publicity interviews for his plays. This was partly pragmatism – a show will only run for so long, and needs to fill houses to be a success. It’s also perhaps an indicator that, although White acknowledged his novels filled a particular niche in the literary spectrum, he hoped that his plays would speak to something more fundamental in the Australian popular discourse.

I would be gratified to hear about any interviews I may have missed.

Over 2024, I will add links to the content of these interviews where available.

  1. Biographical entry in Twentieth Century Authors (1942) New York: Wilson 1942, ed: Stanley J. Kunitz & Howard Haycraft p.1509-10. Includes interview. Page 1 | Page 2
  2. Interviewed by Kylie Tennant, Sydney Morning Herald 22/9/1956, “Writes in ‘stained glass’”. JPG 1 | 2 | 3
  3. Interview with Elizabeth Riddell, People, 12 Dec 1956.
  4. Interviewed by Ian Moffitt, New York Times Book Review 18/8/1957, “Conversation with Patrick White”. Reprinted in SMH 24/8/1957. JPG 1 | 2
  5. “The writing business”, interviewed by Peter Hastings, Observer, 21/5/1959
  6. Pat Griffith, “Famous author “hates writing””, Adelaide Advertiser 18/11/1961
  7. Interview with Ian Moffitt, “Australian Myths Debunked”, Sunday Mirror 3/12/1961
  8. Interviewed by Brian Davies for Melbourne University Magazine, Spring 1962, as “An Australian enigma: Conversation with Patrick White”
  9. Joan Chesney Frost, Patrick White: a profile (Vogue Australia) Autumn 1962
  10. Interview with Literary Letter magazine, March 1963
  11. Interview with John Hetherington in Forty-two Faces: Profiles of living Australian Writers 1963
  12. Craig McGregor, ‘Patrick White’ in In the Making, published by Nelson, 1969 pp.218-22:

Probably the most notable interview White made prior to the 1970s, when he was still largely considered a private and enigmatic person. White talks about his religion, his creative process, and his current work on The Vivisector. Published in Patrick White Speaks.

  1. Interviewed Briefly in SMH 10/12/1969 re: his opposition of the National Service Act, as anger about the Vietnam War began its slow but inexorable rise.
  2. David Rowbotham, “Profile of a great man’s privacy”, Courier-Mail 30/3/1970 Don’t have.
  3. Elizabeth Riddell, “White”, Australian 1/8/1970 Don’t have.
  4. Mike Carlton, TV interview This Day Tonight (ABC) ‘Patrick White v. ‘Great God Sport’. re: the Centennial Park development plans, March 1972
  5. Brian Dale (writing as Ashley Owen), “Old age I am afraid of, but not death”, Australian Financial Review, 11/7/1972: piece on White’s 60th birthday.
  6. Interviewed in Wildlife in Australia 9.4 (Dec 1972) reflecting on the importance of grass-roots conversation: “Centennial Park Rally”.
  7. “A conversation with Patrick White”, Thelma Herring and Prof G.A. Wilkes 29/3/1973, Southerly 33.2 (June 1973). For the first time, interviewers with literary credentials were able to probe the mysteries of White’s youth – his unfinished pieces, his actions during the 1930s and 1940s, and so on. The author answered with a newfound openness, perhaps generated by his new public profile in light of the Nobel. (published in Wolfe 1990.)
  1. Maria Prerauer, “The wit and wisdom of Patrick White”, Sunday Telegraph 12/8/1973
  2. Tara McCarthy, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Sep 1973 (??)
  3. Interview with Listener 25/10/1973
  4. Rodney Wetherell, ABC Sunday Night Radio 2, 9 Dec 1973
  5. Lengthy interview with Ingmar Bjorkstén, published in Patrick White: epikern fran Australien (1973).
  6. “Setting out blueprints for a better year”, White was one of several notable figures interview for this article in the SMH, 3/1/1974. His desire for 1974 was:

“In response to the Arabs’ attitude in the oil crisis, I’d like to see the Western powers getting together and refusing the Arabs the vital commodities they need. In Australia we should curb building developers and lad speculators as much as possible. We should also control incomes and prices. And I’d like to see less biased press reporting in this country generally.”

  1. Art and the Novel – a spoken word recording released in 1974 by the ABC. The tape ran for 28 minutes, but it is possible it was packaged with other material, as was often the case in the early days of the commercial tape recording.
  2. “Awareness the Environs”, Australian, 28/5/1975 p.8: with regard to his opposition to expanse of mining in Australia.
  3. Bulletin 13/11/1976, promotional piece for the revival of The Season at Sarsaparilla.
  4. “The Enigma of Patrick White”, profile in National Times 27 March 1978 which was highly advertised at the time; also published as “Patrick White: A Revealing Profile”
  5. “A Very Literary Luncheon”, National Times 30/6/1979
  6. Andrew Clark, “The Private Patrick White”, New York Times, 27/4/1980.
  7. Paul Murphy, “The State of the Colony”, TV interview given on ABC’s Nationwide 7/3/1981. In this notable interview, which was heavily reported over the following days, White criticised monarchists and the royals themselves, as well as Malcolm Fraser and John Kerr. It was a dress rehearsal for the release of Flaws in the Glass and garnered him much fan mail and some abuse. The transcript was published in Patrick White Speaks.
  1. “An Interview with Patrick White” – Island Magazine 7, 1981
  2. Richard Coleman, “P. White, Mother and Hat”, SMH, 22/12/1981, reflecting on White’s art exhibition. JPG
  3. Alan Roberts, “The Inner Struggle”, Advertiser 13/2/1982 reprinted: SMH 28/2/1982
  4. Len Radic, “That Man White”, The Age 13/3/1982
  5. Gus Worby, ” Patrick White and Neil Armfield Discuss Signal Driver” – Theatre Australia, Mar 1982
  6. Michael Le Moignan, “Novels? Patrick White wants the machine gun burst of plays”, SMH 23/7/1983 JPG 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
  7. Margaret Simons, “Patrick White Finds it Hard to Forgive”, The Age, 24/9/1983
  8. “The writer who would be a film director… or a chef…”, SMH, 2/10/1983 JPG 1 | 2 | 3
  9. Geraldine O’Brien, “No-One Realises How Frivolous Patrick White Can Be”, SMH 10/12/1983 JPG 1 | 2 | 3
  10. Margret Simons, Tension Issue 3 (April 1984)
  11. Veronica Brady, In Person, ABC Radio, 9/7/1984
  12. Gordon McLauchlan, TV-1 New Zealand (November 1984)
  13. New Zealand Listener 19/1/1985. White was asked live on TV for the first time about his homosexuality and he did not enjoy the experience.
  14. ABC(?) Radio interview 26/1/1985 in which White did his usual thing.
  15. National Times 17/5/1985
  16. Richard Glover, “There’s Still a Lot of Black in White”, SMH Good Weekend 18/5/1985, p. 27 JPG 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
  17. Brief interview in the Sydney Morning Herald, 24/3/1986, “The Day the Nobel Prize winning author Took on the Premier of NSW.”
  18. Janet Hawley, “White Heat in a Kitchen”, Advertiser, 15/3/1986
  19. Peter Ward, The Australian, 18-19 April 1987
  20. 25/1/1988. White was featured on the Today program (with the footage reused overseas) during the visit of Prince Charles and Princess Diana to Sydney Harbour during Australia’s Bicentenary. White was quoted as saying “I think it’s shocking the way the royal goons are going to be here most of the year. I can’t really see an awful lot to be proud about in our past, and certainly not in our present.”
  21. Ray Willbanks, “Patrick White at Seventy-Five: A Visit”, Antipodes 2.1 (1988)
  22. “Books and Writing”, ABC Radio National 1/10/1989
  23. Angela Bennie, “White: Light and Shade”, SMH 11/11/1989. White’s final print interview, promoting the new production of The Ham Funeral.
  24. Sally Begbie, ABC Television 14/11/1989. White’s final in-person interview, given on Opening Night of the much-hyped revival of The Ham Funeral. (Excerpts printed in Marr 642).

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