“I had a stroke and feared for my life. Please stop smoking»- Corriere.it

For years, Aaron Sorkin smoked two packs of cigarettes a day, but he was convinced nothing would ever happen to him. Then, in November of last year, just as he was writing his first musical, «Camelot», the great scare that blew up all his (false) certainties: the Academy Award for best non-original screenplay for « The Social Network» in fact suffered a stroke, caused by blood pressure so high that his doctor was sure he would die. However, 61-year-old Sorkin managed to survive, although for a month he had trouble articulating words and moving his hands, so much so that he was unable to write his name or use the computer.

«More than anything else it was an alarm bell – the writer said in an interview with the New York Times – . I figured I was one of those people who could eat whatever I wanted, smoke as much as I wanted, and that I would never have any consequences. How wrong I was! There was a moment when I feared I wouldn’t be able to write anymore and, thinking about the present, that I wouldn’t be able to continue writing Camelot». Screenwriter of cult series such as “West Wind – All the President’s Men” and “The Newsroom”, Sorkin was keen to clarify that he has now recovered (“I want to be very, very clear. I’m fine. I wouldn’t want anyone to think that I’m not I can work. I’m fine») and that the only problem that persists concerns the difficulty in distinguishing flavours.

However, the bad experience he had had led him to give up smoking and it is for this reason that he decided to make the story of the stroke public, so that other people are also encouraged to follow his example. “If I can get even one person to quit smoking, then I’ll have helped,” he concluded.