I imagined myself in that place to feel like how other people feel! How other people will take action in that situation!

Salman Aziz – 23 October 2021

The Back Flap

Bold and Bitter Statements, is a book contained full of life experiences of the author. It’s a book of bitter truths that people may find intensive bold words of the author. The bold words may motivate some people to go into the infinite hole of truth. And some people may think the words are excessively bitter to concede.

About the book

What is the book about?

Before starting, I would love to thank IndieView for having me in this interview. It means a lot for me! From the book title, people can guess about the book a little bit! It is a book that is full of bitter truths which have been served by my boldest way. Some people may think, the book represents a philosophical book that can guide their souls to the real world. And for some people, the book is full of garbage. Because there are plenty of people who exist in this world, who love to live in perfect delusion! These people do not even want to hear any words related to reality. That is why I’ve kept my book name Bold and Bitter Statements. In this book, I have written about humans, nature, and abstract knowledge that I have gained from different circumstances. And most of all I have taken the help of metaphorical images to make my words more realistic and enigmatic.

When did you start writing the book?

Well, it’s a quite hard question for me, because after releasing my first book 6th September: A Very Unknown Mysterious Story in 2017, I was kinda lost. I didn’t find any topic to write about. Though I was suffering from major depressive disorder and still I am under treatment! With that, day by day I build myself to do something different. And finally, I began to write words from my thoughts. It took almost 4 years to rebuild myself to write the book. Because all the words are written from life experiences. Though my statements are comparatively short, the meanings are very vast. The more people read my statements, the more they will get different meanings from different perspectives.  

How long did it take you to write it?

Compiling as a book, it has taken more than 2 months to complete. But the writing process was very long! At that moment, I was very busy making the first-ever symbolic cult horror short film (Lost in the Black Hole) in Bangladesh. At the same time, I was collecting the ideas for my book from different phases and then putting those into words. I was working parallelly at that time! It was a very hectic time for me! I still can remember, I was revising and editing my words multiple times to make the statements more prominent, and also busy promoting my film and participating in various international film festivals! That was such a memorable time for me!

Where did you get the idea from?

Honestly, I got the ideas from life, nature, human minds, and so many on! In my life, from childhood to now, I have seen and bear so many things! I have got many life lessons! Then, I tried to see those through other people’s eyes! I tried to figure out how others react! Not only that, when I went outside, I used to watch every single particle, every single living creature nearby me and tried to find out the correlation with human life. And, then finally I was able to write those in my own meaningful way!

Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?

Yes, almost in every part of my statements, I struggled a lot! Because in my thought people may not take those in a good way! And choosing bitter words to express my thoughts was challenging for me. I was kinda terrified that they will not understand the meaning of my every statement. But I was quite steady in my mind that I will not change anything from my statements.

What came easily?

If I reveal it, I know people will laugh! My thoughts about “Love” came so easily! I was in love with someone very special at that time and I was experiencing some wonderful moments from the long-distance relationship! And, these experiences helped me to write topics about love. Though, my love didn’t stay long due to some misunderstanding. But I still have respect, love, and prayer for my special person! I’ve even dedicated this book to my former lover!

Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?

I kinda take help from both the imaginary and the real world! From life experiences, I had already gathered some ideas. But when writing about some different situations which I have never been through, I put myself into that state. I imagined myself in that place to feel like how other people feel! How other people will take action in that situation! For perceiving that, I had to go in very deep thought!

Do you have a target reader for this book?

Mainly, my target readers are mature people with enough knowledge to feel everything from various perspectives. The book does not have any age limitations. Because, I have seen many people below 18 have gained much knowledge about so many things where elders did not! Again, I have seen many elders who have gathered various lifelong knowledge from every stage of life and they are always trying to teach younger people about what they have learned from life!

How was writing this book different from what you’d experienced writing previous books?

Ah, it was a completely new journey to write this book! My previous book 6th September: A Very Unknown Mysterious Story was a fictional book. But the story was based on a true event! Writing this book, I got many sweet bitter experiences. But those are really memorable for me. I just want to say, it is just the beginning with volume 1, I have to experience many more than those!

What new things did you learn about writing, publishing, and/or yourself while writing and preparing this book for publication?

An important thing I have learned from this whole journey is that “a person should keep the knowledge on all the little things without limiting the knowledge to a very small range!” Because the increase of knowledge will broaden the mind! Another thing I must include is that for some readers it might be a photobook! But actually, it is not! In this book every single word and image have their own deep meaning, even the colors have! Just like Taylor Swift uses symbolism in her music videos to express her mind, I’ve also done so! I must admit that Taylor Swift has inspired me to use allegorical pictures!

Talking about publication, I’ll definitely stand for independent publishing! Because if a writer cannot express the mind freely, then it’s very pathetic for the literary world! Publishing houses should not censor writer’s words! That’s all I can say!

Once again, many many thanks to the IndieView team for allowing me to tell people about my book writing journey!

End of Interview:

For more from Salman, follow his page on Facebook. If you’re interested, you can also check out his film credits on IMDB.

Get your copy of Bold and Bitter Statements from Amazon US or Amazon UK.