One of Vytautė Žilinskaitė's last interviews: "If good always prevailed, the world would be perfect"

This interview was conducted in 2020, a week before the 90th anniversary of this children’s writer and satirist.

In the interview, V. Žilinskaitė talks about the importance of satire in her work, following fairy tales for her young son and unwritten stories, childhood experiences and her most famous books.

– Your literary debut was a book of poetry. Have you ever returned to poetry for adults?

– Oh, no! Not only did I not want to write it, but I didn’t want to read it either. Nothing surprising: at that time, many young people started with poems and only then switched to prose or journalism. The poem used to be like a start, a starting point.

– I still remember your humoresques from the old magazines very well. I have always found satire to be an extremely difficult genre. Not every writer can turn their sense of humor into a good piece. What mark has this genre left on your work?

– Of course, he left. And quite bright. Even “Journey to Tandadrika” without laughter and satire would remain like a bird with clipped wings. And my highest aspiration is to interweave laughter with tears… What could be more wonderful when a child laughs and you see tears that haven’t dried yet?

Even “Journey to Tandadrika” without laughter and satire would remain like a bird with clipped wings.

– You have said that you started writing for children when you started following fairy tales for your son Maris. Why do you feel that what you say needs to be written down?

– I used to follow fairy tales to my son, regretting that I only got to hear one fairy tale from my grandmother – about Vosyliuk, who was kidnapped by a witch. I remember her word for word. Since I didn’t know many fairy tales, it was left for my son to follow his own creations. Unfortunately, I didn’t write any of them down. A magician would rather invent a new one than write down an existing one. Now it’s a pity for those, the unregistered, the poor…

– In your short stories and short stories for children, one can find a whole range of feelings. How do you know how children feel?

– How would I not know if I was a child myself? The feelings experienced then have not been erased, they remained very deep. Sometimes I tried to talk about it with my brother and sister, but they had already forgotten all about it and did not want to remember. And my mother didn’t want to talk about it at all.

My childhood was spent in Kaunas, Žaliakalnis. We lived on a hill under which a tunnel ran, and from the top there were stairs leading down to Laisvės avenue.

– Could you remember the most stuck events of your childhood and adolescence, which, perhaps, had significance for the rest of your life?

– My childhood was spent in Kaunas, Žaliakalnis. We lived on a hill under which a tunnel ran, and from the top there were stairs leading down to Laisvės avenue. Once, while climbing the stairs, a turkey got in the way, I overcame the obstacle and went down the alley, right into the hands of the policeman on duty. I was only three, so I admired how powerful the policeman looked, in his fancy uniform! And how small, colorless the Soviet militiamen appeared to me later.

His father built a house on Tunelis street, and later, when Vilnius was returned to Lithuania, he was appointed to the capital, to work as an economist in Turniškės. We stayed in the house where the president’s residence is located. A wonderful house built by Poles. When we moved, there was only construction around – the Poles were preparing to build a power plant. However, the Soviets fell and everything got messed up, they took away our housing, and we were left, as they say, naked on the field.

– You had to go through many changes. What would you say to children, should they be afraid of them? Or maybe, on the contrary, every change – hardens?

– What hardens them, and what scares them… When I meet with the children, I would just tell one story and we would all discuss them together.

– You said that your favorite book was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Did you read children’s books later as an adult?

– I didn’t read. There are countless books for adults, where you can catch up!

– Have you felt that today’s children need to speak another language? Or maybe there is a universal language for all times and there is no need to pay attention to the changed era?

– The most important thing is to talk to children at all. About what they care about and are interested in. Otherwise it will pass through the ears. It is possible that some story will determine the child’s future or profession. In childhood, the mind is the most receptive, the imagination is the widest, because children constantly ask adults about everything. And those, instead of developing curiosity and a thirst for knowledge, just get their hands dirty. Language – universal or individual – has little meaning in this situation.

– You have mentioned that “The Robot and the Bow Tie” is your most favorite book. What message did you send the children with it?

– In that book, my favorite fairy tale is about a robot and a bow tie. It is suitable for both small and large children. It seems to me that I put into it what was scattered among other works. I wrote about a robot that woke up one day with a heart. Unfortunately, not to the one who took the National Award from me these days. On the occasion of the anniversary – will it not be the first case? Despite the fact that my works have been printed and broadcast all over the world.

The most important thing is to talk to children at all. About what they care about and are interested in. Otherwise it will pass through the ears.

So I warn the children: if they fight for justice, they will suffer many times. And that it is better to suffer than to be a selfish offender.

– Can you remember how “The Grasshopper in the Glass” was born? And what does it mean to bring the animal world into human life? Are such parallels clear to children?

– Those parallels exist in the oldest tales of all nations. I think they are clearer for children than for adults.

– You already have great-grandchildren. Are they asking you to follow the fairy tales?

– Unfortunately, my great-grandchildren live separately, and I am sad about that. Live communication is replaced by television and the Internet with added temptations. The new is born in technology, and this one helps and encourages – more and more brazenly – remote communication. And you can’t do anything here, the Internet is blowing like yeast, and paper books seem to be in the shadow of the two. And yet, that little piece of paper remains everyone’s favorite.