A Warrior’s Life: A Biography of Paulo Coelho. Fernando Morais

is there anything good in the world around me? Yes, it’s not all disappointment. There’s de Gaulle, who revived France and wants to spread freedom throughout the world. There’s Yevtushenko, who raised his voice against a regime, knowing that he could be crushed without anyone knowing, but who saw that humanity was prepared to accept his thoughts, free as doves. There’s Khrushchev, who allowed the poet to express himself as he wished. There’s Francisco Julião and Miguel Arraes, two true leaders who knew how to fight to the end. There’s Ruy Guerra and Glauber Rocha, who brought to popular art a message of revolt. There’s Luís Carlos Prestes, who sacrificed everything for an ideal. There’s the life beating inside me so that one day I can speak out too. There’s the world in the hands of the young. Perhaps, before it’s too late, they will realize what this means. And fight to the death.

      The first job opportunity to arise, meanwhile, was light years away from the battle against the military dictatorship and the exploitation of underdeveloped countries by American imperialism. An actors’ cooperative called Grupo Destaque was rehearsing a dramatized version of the children’s classic Pinocchio, which was to be performed at the end of 1965, and the directors had a problem. The show required seven scene-changes, and the directors were worried that each time the curtain fell, the audience, mostly children, would start wandering around the theatre and delay the start of the next scene. The producer, the Frenchman Jean Arlin, came up with a simple solution: they would get another actor to appear on the stage during each interval and distract the children until the curtain rose again. He recalled an ugly, awkward, but witty young man, Paulo Coelho, who had been introduced to him by Joel Macedo. He would be perfect for the role. This was hardly resistance theatre, and the role didn’t even have a script, which meant he would simply have to improvise, and it was unlikely he would get paid very much. As a cooperative venture, after each show, the takings would be shared out, most of them going to pay first for the hire of the theatre, and then the technicians, lighting assistants and scene-shifters. If anything was left over, then it would be divided equally among the actors, each of whom would get only enough to pay for a snack. All the same, Paulo accepted the invitation on the spot.