Playwriting is a very, very specific craft

In an Radio National Book Show interview, South African playwright Athol Fugard talks about the relationship between writing for novels and theatre. His first and only novel, Tsotsi, has become very successful with the release of a recent film. However, he contends that as playwriting is a 'craft', you can't combine it with other forms of writing. Fugard is using craft as a quality of a vocation that is exclusive.

I don't know of many novelists who are also successful playwrights. There are certainly a few poets who've tried. You know playwriting is a very, very specific craft. And I'm passionate about it. Passionate about theatre, passionate about the way it communicates, the way it works, the magic of it.
RN Book Show - 27 December 2006 - Athol Fugard: Tsotsi