Donald Miller

Donald Miller came to worldwide prominence with the publication of his book 'Blue Like Jazz' which seemed to capture the imagination of a generation of Christians. The book was a series of essays. Early in 2009, it was revealed that former music artist and now film director Steve Taylor was transforming the book into a film. In Miller's latest book 'A Million Miles In A Thousand Years', he shares what he learned while editing his own life. Here he talks to Mike Rimmer about the book.

Mike: It must be a strange experience having your life turned into a movie?

Don: It's a really neat experience in the sense that you have to sit down and ask yourself, what has been meaningful, what has been interesting; because that's the stuff you're looking for - for film, and comically Steve and the guys found that not a whole lot of my life was worthy of translation. So, we ended up having to get imaginative and creative and help me understand what are the elements of a meaningful life. Now I make decisions based on those elements.

Mike: So, in the film of the book, is somebody going to be playing a character called Don Miller but it's not really you?

Don: Well in every book there's a translation from reality, in every film version there's a translation from that. So, you know. It is a character that has my name and goes to school where I went to school, and interacts with the people I interact with; but the rest of it is fairly imaginative.

Mike: So is it going to be one of those films that has a phrase at the beginning, "based on a true story"?

Don: Exactly, that's exactly it.

Mike: Won't people find it ironic that your life's not interesting enough? Since 'Blue Like Jazz' was very successful, it made you a celebrity didn't it?

Don: You know being successful doesn't necessarily make your life more interesting. A lot of us think it does. But it can be just as boring. It's things like sacrificing for the sake of other people, and engaging rather than running from conflict. Those are the things that make a life interesting.

Mike: Were you surprised to find out that it didn't change your life as much as you thought it might, was that a shock to you?

Don: Sure. You know we all have these daydreams that if we just get what we want in life then everything is going to be great. But it's really not. Life is just going to go on as normal. Everything's going to be precisely the same as it was really the day before. And so making the most of life really involves trying to pursue something that is more meaningful than just our successes.

Mike: The theme of the book is a challenge to the reader to do something bigger with their own life. A lot of people would think that in writing and communicating, you've already done that; you've done something bigger with your own life than ordinary people.

Don: Well if you think about it; if you made a movie about a guy who wanted to be a successful writer and sell a lot of books. At the end of that movie people probably wouldn't be very impressed. You know, they wouldn't say that was a really meaningful story. The stuff of meaningful story involves love, and relationships and helping people who are in trouble. That's the stuff of a meaningful story. So we have to live those things out in our lives if we expect to feel meaning

Mike: Tell me about the process of writing the book?

Don: When I sat down to write the book, I looked back and asked myself what happened, what was the progression - evolution of my thinking. Because at the beginning I wasn't living a very interesting life; but by the end of it I was. So I had to go back and ask myself what were the milestones.