Does your lifestyle allow you to read as much as you would like to?

I believe that reading is essential to my job, so yes, I read as much as I can. Sometimes it's the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning, to structure my thoughts. I think that when you really love reading, it's part of your oxygen.

Is there a particular book that has affected how you lead your life?

There is not one book in particular that helped me “lead” my life, but more generally, books, stories, follow me, guide me, build me, give a meaning to my life.

What is the most liberating book you have read?

I felt a sort of liberation when I understood that literature could be bigger than us. The first time I felt that was when I read Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra. I had barely started to read that I already had deep visions, like my intimate world opening, and it was strangely very comforting.

What is the most harrowing book you have ever read?

I love harrowing books, the ones you don't get too easily, not in a rational way, the ones which have their own meaning, their own language, their own vision of the world. I like somehow crazy, morbid, chaotic flights, when they are organic. But it's true that it often takes a lot of effort to truly enter in such a universe, like Faulkner's one for example.

“The veiled face of a woman, refined, disillusioned, is a suitable preface to this book which will treat sadly of sensual pleasure.”

Which fictional heroine would you like to be?

Of all the heroines that fascinate me, there is not a single one with whom I'd like to exchange my life because most of them go through great despair, violent events. But it brings out a beautiful strength from them: Oscar Wilde's Salomé, Virginia Woolf's Orlando...

What is the best place to read?

At home, on my carpet, sometimes with music.

Are you more romance novel or adventure novel?

Adventure AND love of course!

Do you prefer long novels or short stories?

It's a difficult question, neither one nor the other, I like both. There are great authors who couldn't write anything else but short stories, and others that we would like to read without ever stopping. I studied Raymond Carver's short stories for example, and when you really delve into it it's pure genius!

Which book would you like to see adapted to film?

“The veiled face of a woman, refined, disillusioned, is a suitable preface to this book which will treat sadly of sensual pleasure.” Colette's The Pure and the Impure. A beautiful book about her Parisian nights, about decadence, published in the 30s.

The title of a book you always offer as a gift?

Any book by Albert Camus, especially now.