"Finally, I am a great traveller without my knowledgebecause I hate transport. Or rather everything that happens before the journey: ordering a taxi, going to the airport, going through security, taking off your shoes... it all gets tedious in the end. After that, once I'm on the plane, I don't care. I like it, I'm confident, even during a big storm like the one I experienced one day between Milan and Paris. It was shaking really hard and I was there, quiet, reading my newspaper, while the lady next to me - a demonstrative Mediterranean woman - screamed in terror... I take so many planes that I can recognise the noises, those of the Airbus for example, especially on take-off. In any case, once I'm in the air, I'm working. As always, I write. Whether it's lines for a novel in progress or an article for a newspaper. Besides, if I travel, it's for my work, with rare exceptions. Which gives me a wonderful opportunity to travel the worldA lecture here, a reading somewhere else. First I do what I have to do, and then, from time to time, I extend my stay, for example in Peru or China, to discover the country and see the people. In this way, I've met some exceptional people, people like Oscar Niemeyer and Umberto Eco, with whom I've become close friends, but also poets and artists who aren't necessarily well known. It's very enriching, there are things like that that leave their mark, this human diversity; even if I'm not very optimistic and generally doesn't find humanity particularly likeable.
I've met some exceptional people, like Oscar Niemeyer and Umberto Eco.
I move around a lot, a lot in fact, but I'm not bohemian at all. In fact, I'm just the opposite, it has to be organisedThe taxi, the hotel, everything. I see these things that have to be done at the last minute as a waste of time. It's the same with hotels. I prefer them to be comfortable, but above all efficient, like the big chain hotels. So I very rarely stay in small, charming establishments, and even less so in palaces. I don't feel comfortable in a palace. Because it's too much, too much luxury too much of everything, in fact. For example, when I was young, 28-30 years old, I remember staying at the Ritz in Madrid for a television programme. It was extraordinary. Except that the bed was far too high and I was afraid of heights. And so.., I preferred to sleep on the floor. It's undoubtedly because I come from a very modest family.
I've made some extraordinary trips, including a report in 1974 on Mecca for the newspaper Le Monde, when I was a freelance journalist. Since then, it's almost become commonplace, but at the time it wasn't done and it made a big splash in the international press. But what I love most of all is the MediterraneanThe familiarity, the lifestyle, the ease. And the food too, in Italy for example, where the smallest little bistro serves fantastic food. This is not the case in France, where you have to choose a good restaurant. Perhaps my most beautiful trip was to Italy, to the Amalfi Coast, which for me is the most beautiful coast in the world. But I was in love, so... "
Interview by Serge Barret
KEY DATES
1947 : Born in Fez.
July 66 : Military prison in Morocco for political reasons for 18 months.
1971 : Arrival in Paris.
1987 : Birth of his daughter and Goncourt Prize for his novel La Nuit Sacrée.
2008 : elected to the Académie Goncourt.
