Kazuo Ishiguro on "What’s the worst piece of writing advice you’ve received?"

From Kazuo Ishiguro Talks Zuckerberg, Game Of Thrones And His New Novel:

‘Write about what you know’ is the most stupid thing I’ve heard. It encourages people to write a dull autobiography. It’s the reverse of firing the imagination and potential of writers. But no one’s ever said that to me, oddly.

Generally speaking I tend to dislike the sort of authors who win prizes like the Nobel in Literature or the Man Booker but I actually rather enjoyed a few of Kazuo Ishiguro's books - particularly Never Let Me Go. My interests in the realm of fiction have tended to be fairly low-brow. Ishiguro winning the Nobel in Literature this year would probably have been enough for me to cross him off my to-read list so I suppose it's a good thing I read him before.