- He contributed to the screenplays of the movies De Witte van Sichem (1980) after Ernest Claes and Lijmen/Het Been (2000) after Willem Elsschot.
- His fragile health during his youth and its impact on his life (solitude), had an effect on his first literary work.
- He made his literary debut with the psychological novel De weddenschap (English: The bet) in (1963). Later he made the statement that he wrote as a therapy, such as with Zelfportret met gesloten ogen (English: Self-portrait with closed eyes) (1973) and Uit het raam springen moet als nutteloos worden beschouwd (English: Jumping out of the window must be considered useless) (1983), which was made into a movie Springen.
- In Schrijven of schieten (Enlish: Writing or shooting) (1969) and Geen daden maar woorden (English: No deeds but words) (1970), he published several interviews with fellow writers.
- In addition to his novels he wrote some books for children and literary essays.
- In 1974 he won Ark Prize of the Free Word, a symbolic award created in 1951 by Herman Teirlinck and the editorial team of the Nieuw Vlaams Tijdschrift (New Flemish magazine) to counteract ideologically driven restrictions on the freedom of expression.
- He started his career as a civil servant and worked for the journal Volkskrant and the literary magazine Dietsche Warande en Belfort.
- He translated 8 theatre plays for the De Koninklijke Nederlandse Schouwburg (KNS) and het Raamtheater.
- In 1973 he underwent surgery on both eyes (he suffered from bilateral glaucoma). His autobiographical books: "Zelfportret met gesloten ogen" (Self-Portrait with Closed Eyes) (1973) and "We beginnen de dag opgeruimd en lopen rond de tafel" (We Start the Day Tidy and Walk Around the Table )(1974) refer to this.
- In 2008 he received the" Gulden Mira" for his work as a screenwriter.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content