Umberto Eco Interview: I Was Always Narrating

Summary

En esta entrevista, el autor reflexiona sobre su trayectoria en la escritura, compartiendo cómo la narrativa siempre formó parte de su vida, incluso en sus trabajos académicos. Revela que la idea de escribir novelas surgió de manera espontánea, con una mezcla de inspiración personal y provocación externa. Destaca su proceso creativo, basado en la investigación profunda y la construcción de mundos detallados. También habla sobre el impacto del éxito de su obra 'El nombre de la rosa' y cómo la escritura se ha entrelazado con sus vivencias personales, sus viajes y su curiosidad filosófica.

Takeaways

• 🖊️ Umberto Eco siempre tuvo un impulso narrativo, incluso en sus escritos académicos, que estaban estructurados como narraciones.
• 👶 Comenzó a escribir novelas cuando sus hijos ya eran mayores y no escuchaban sus historias, aunque siempre le había gustado contar cuentos.
• 📚 Un editor le propuso escribir historias cortas, pero Eco rechazó la idea pensando que no era capaz de escribir diálogos, aunque finalmente esa se convirtió en una de sus fortalezas.
• 🏰 Al escribir 'El nombre de la rosa', Eco investigó durante dos años sobre la Edad Media, mientras que para otras novelas, como 'El péndulo de Foucault', la investigación duró hasta ocho años.
• 🌍 Eco destaca que para escribir novelas, primero construye un mundo completo donde los personajes puedan moverse con facilidad. Este proceso de creación toma años antes de comenzar a escribir.
• 🏊‍♂️ Cuando enfrenta una crisis creativa, Eco recurre a la natación para relajarse y permitir que las ideas fluyan.
• 💻 Considera la escritura como un proceso de investigación, y las herramientas modernas como la computadora han acelerado su productividad, permitiéndole escribir a la velocidad de su pensamiento.
• 📖 Eco hace una distinción entre el lector empírico (quien realmente lee) y el lector modelo (quien el autor construye). Cree que los escritores serios crean a su propio lector.
• ✍️ Su enfoque para escribir una novela comienza con una imagen poderosa, que luego le permite desarrollar el resto de la historia de manera orgánica.
• 📚 Aunque 'El nombre de la rosa' fue su novela más exitosa, Eco considera que su mejor obra fue 'El péndulo de Foucault'.

Q & A

¿Cuál fue el arrepentimiento de Roland Barthes antes de morir?

Roland Barthes murió con el remordimiento de no haber escrito una novela, aunque su amigo en el video menciona que sus ensayos ya eran narrativamente fantásticos y bellos.

¿Por qué el hablante menciona que siempre estuvo narrando, incluso antes de escribir novelas?

El hablante explica que aunque empezó a escribir novelas a los 48 años, siempre había estado narrando a través de sus trabajos académicos, que tomaban la forma de una narración, y también a través de contar historias a sus hijos.

¿Qué motivó al hablante a escribir una novela por primera vez?

El hablante relata que una amiga que trabajaba para una editorial le sugirió escribir una historia de detectives, lo que inicialmente rechazó. Sin embargo, este encuentro lo llevó a hacer una lista de nombres de monjes, lo que indica que había algo inconsciente en él que lo impulsaba a escribir una novela.

¿Qué descubrió el hablante sobre el proceso de escribir una novela?

El hablante descubrió que escribir una novela no solo es tomar un bolígrafo y escribir, sino que implica crear un mundo y realizar una investigación profunda. En algunas de sus novelas, pasó años creando el mundo en el que los personajes podían moverse con facilidad antes de empezar a escribir.

¿Cómo compara el hablante la poesía con la prosa?

El hablante hace una distinción entre poesía y prosa: en la poesía, las palabras vienen primero y luego el significado, mientras que en la prosa, primero existe un mundo y la historia, y el lenguaje debe seguir la historia.

¿Cómo describe el hablante el papel del autor en la escritura de una novela?

El hablante cree que el autor no es quien escribe la novela, sino que la novela se escribe a sí misma. El autor plantea algunos puntos de partida, pero después sigue la lógica de los personajes, que a menudo lo sorprenden.

¿Cuál es la importancia de la investigación en el proceso de escritura del hablante?

La investigación es crucial para el hablante. Por ejemplo, para 'El Nombre de la Rosa', diseñó múltiples laberintos y rostros de los monjes. Incluso visitó lugares específicos, como las islas del sur para describir los colores en 'La Isla del Día Antes'.

¿Cómo afectó el éxito de 'El Nombre de la Rosa' a la vida del hablante?

El éxito de 'El Nombre de la Rosa' redujo la libertad del hablante, ya que se volvió más conocido y no podía ir a eventos públicos sin ser acosado. Sin embargo, él ya vivía cómodamente antes del éxito debido a su salario como profesor universitario.

¿Por qué el hablante considera que 'El Péndulo de Foucault' es su mejor novela?

El hablante cree que 'El Péndulo de Foucault' es su mejor novela porque considera que logró más en términos de narración y profundidad que 'El Nombre de la Rosa', aunque esta última sigue siendo su obra más conocida.

¿Cuál es el papel de la tecnología en el proceso de escritura del hablante?

El hablante considera que la computadora es una herramienta espiritual porque permite escribir a la velocidad del pensamiento. Aunque no usó una computadora para 'El Nombre de la Rosa', sí la ha utilizado para otras novelas, lo que ha aumentado su productividad y facilitado la investigación.

Outlines

00:00

📝 Reflexión sobre la narración y la escritura

El autor comienza hablando sobre su amigo Roland Barthes, quien lamentó no haber escrito una novela. Reflexiona que aunque comenzó a escribir novelas a los 48 años, siempre estuvo narrando, incluso en sus trabajos académicos. Relata cómo su impulso narrativo se manifestó en contar historias a sus hijos y escribir textos para musicales. Finalmente, cuenta cómo surgió la idea de escribir una novela ambientada en un monasterio medieval tras una conversación con una amiga.

05:01

🌍 El proceso de creación de mundos narrativos

El autor describe su proceso creativo, explicando que antes de escribir, pasa años creando un mundo coherente para que sus personajes puedan moverse en él. Este proceso le permite tener un control total sobre los detalles, como diseñar el laberinto de la biblioteca en 'El nombre de la rosa'. También menciona cómo nadar le ayuda a superar bloqueos creativos y cómo las ideas surgen a medida que avanza en la historia.

10:03

📚 El lenguaje y el lector en la narración

El autor habla sobre cómo adapta el lenguaje de sus novelas al periodo histórico en el que están ambientadas, como en 'La isla del día antes', donde estudió el lenguaje barroco. Además, distingue entre el lector empírico (real) y el lector modelo (construido por el autor). Critica a escritores como Dan Brown por escribir para lectores crédulos y destaca que los autores serios construyen su propio lector.

15:08

📖 La condena del éxito y el proceso de escribir

El autor reflexiona sobre cómo el éxito de una obra puede condenar a un escritor a ser siempre asociado con esa obra. Cuenta que, aunque 'El péndulo de Foucault' es su novela favorita, sigue siendo más conocido por 'El nombre de la rosa'. También menciona el proceso que lo llevó a escribir nuevas novelas, donde imágenes específicas lo inspiran, como un péndulo o un trompetista en un cementerio. Finalmente, comenta cómo la tecnología ha facilitado el proceso de escritura.

20:10

💻 La investigación y el uso de la tecnología en la escritura

El autor describe cómo la tecnología, en particular el uso de la computadora, ha incrementado su productividad al permitirle escribir al ritmo de sus pensamientos y realizar correcciones rápidamente. También destaca la importancia de la investigación de campo para describir lugares con precisión en sus novelas. Reflexiona sobre cómo su formación como filósofo y semiótico lo ha llevado a estudiar falsificaciones, lo cual considera fascinante. Finaliza mencionando su colección de libros raros, principalmente aquellos que contienen errores.

Keywords

💡Narrativa

La narrativa se refiere al arte de contar historias, ya sea en ensayos, novelas o incluso artículos académicos. En el video, se menciona cómo tanto los ensayos de Barthes como los artículos académicos del entrevistado tienen una estructura narrativa, lo que sugiere que la narración puede surgir en múltiples formas de escritura.

💡Monasterio medieval

El monasterio medieval es clave en el desarrollo de 'El nombre de la rosa', la primera novela del entrevistado. Aunque inicialmente rechazó la idea de escribir una historia de detectives, mencionó que si lo hacía, sería en un monasterio medieval, lo cual desencadenó el proceso creativo que llevó a su novela más famosa.

💡Creación de mundos

La creación de mundos es una parte esencial del proceso narrativo del entrevistado. En el video, él detalla cómo, antes de escribir, pasa años diseñando el entorno y los detalles de los personajes. Este enfoque lo ayuda a crear universos completos donde los personajes pueden moverse con fluidez, lo que es parte del atractivo de contar historias.

💡Investigación

La investigación es fundamental para la escritura del entrevistado, quien dedica años a investigar los contextos históricos, los escenarios y los detalles que luego aparecen en sus novelas. Por ejemplo, menciona que para 'El nombre de la rosa', la investigación fue breve debido a su conocimiento previo de la Edad Media, pero otros proyectos le tomaron hasta ocho años.

💡Crisis creativa

La crisis creativa es un momento que el entrevistado experimenta durante el proceso de escritura, cuando se encuentra atrapado en una situación narrativa. Menciona que para superar estas crisis, suele nadar, ya que le permite relajarse y generar nuevas ideas, lo cual demuestra la importancia de la desconexión en su proceso creativo.

💡Lectores empíricos y lectores modelo

El entrevistado hace una distinción entre el lector empírico y el lector modelo. El lector empírico es el lector real, mientras que el lector modelo es el que el autor construye a través de su obra. Para él, los escritores serios crean su propio lector modelo, guiando al lector a través de la narrativa en lugar de escribir para un público preexistente.

💡Lenguaje y estilo

El lenguaje y el estilo cambian según la historia que el entrevistado escribe. Por ejemplo, en 'El nombre de la rosa', usa un estilo simple imitando las crónicas medievales, mientras que en 'La isla del día de antes' adopta un estilo barroco. El entrevistado presta atención a que el lenguaje sea fiel al contexto histórico y cultural de la historia.

💡Falsedad y verdad

Como filósofo y semiótico, el entrevistado está fascinado por la falsedad y la verdad. Él estudia libros falsos y entiende que es más fácil probar que algo es falso que demostrar que es verdadero. Este interés se refleja en su colección de libros antiguos que contienen errores, como los textos de Ptolomeo que presentaban teorías incorrectas sobre el movimiento de la Tierra.

💡La novela se escribe sola

El entrevistado sostiene que, una vez que comienza el proceso de creación de una novela, ésta 'se escribe sola'. Los personajes y la historia desarrollan su propia lógica interna, lo que significa que el autor solo establece los puntos de partida y luego sigue el curso que toma la narrativa de forma natural.

💡Éxito y fama

El éxito de 'El nombre de la rosa' trajo cambios en la vida del entrevistado, particularmente en la reducción de su libertad personal debido a la fama. A pesar de haber escrito otros libros, está 'condenado' a hablar siempre de esa novela, lo que ilustra cómo el éxito inicial de una obra puede marcar la carrera de un autor.

Highlights

Roland Barthes regretted not writing a novel, but his essays were narratively fantastic.

Even as an academic, Eco always had a narrative impulse, which he satisfied by telling stories and structuring research as narratives.

Eco started writing novels after his children were too old to listen to his stories.

A publisher's suggestion to write a short detective story sparked Eco's first novel, despite his initial reluctance.

Eco believed the author doesn't write the novel; instead, the novel writes itself through the characters' logic.

Eco created detailed worlds for his novels, designing labyrinths and ship interiors to understand character movement.

Eco made a clear distinction between prose and poetry, stating that poetry begins with words, whereas prose begins with the world.

Each story demands its own language, and Eco meticulously researched the Baroque language for 'The Island of the Day Before.'

Eco built his ideal reader through his writing, contrasting this with authors like Dan Brown, who write for pre-existing readers.

Eco's novel 'Foucault’s Pendulum' was meant as a grotesque representation of conspiracy theories that Dan Brown took seriously.

Eco considered 'Foucault’s Pendulum' his best novel, despite 'The Name of the Rose' being more popular.

Success with 'The Name of the Rose' reduced Eco's personal freedom, making public appearances more difficult.

Eco’s novels often started from a powerful image, such as a pendulum or a monk being poisoned.

Eco spent extensive time researching places for his novels, such as visiting the southern islands for 'The Island of the Day Before.'

Eco was fascinated by fake books and collected works that were wrong, like those of Ptolemy instead of Galileo.

Transcripts

I think...

You know one of my great friends was Roland Barthes...

died with the remorse that he didn't write a novel.

And, he was wrong because all his essays were narratively

fantastic and beautiful, okay.

On the contrary, I realised that even though I started writing novels

at the age of 48,

I was always narrating - even my

my academic papers had the form of a narration.

So I...

satisfied a sort of narrative impulse in two ways:

by giving a narrative form to my researches

and telling stories to my children.

Then probably I started writing a real novel

when my children were too old to... to listen to my stories.

I always had this pleasure in telling a story: maybe they were jokes.

Then, when I was a student, I wrote many texts for musicals.

It was another way to tell stories,

but without giving too much importance to that - it was...

an amusement.

[Interviewer:] What then did decide - that now you have to write a novel?

There is no answer.

A very provocative answer

I give some time because I am disturbed by this question.

It happens when you feel that you have to piss

and you have to run to the toilet, hahaha!

The real episode, I don't know how much it counts,

but it happened that way.

A friend of mine, a young lady

who was working for a small publisher went once to me

and said: 'We want to start a series of short detection stories,

'written not by writers, but by sociologists, politicians...

'Do you want to do... ?'

I said: 'No.

'First of all, because I am convinced I am unable to write dialogues'.

It seems that dialogues are the best part of my novels.

'Second...

'if I had to write a detection story

'it would be 500 pages long

'and take place in a medieval monastery.'

And, she said: 'No, it's not what I... ciao, ciao, ciao!

I went home...

and I started to write a list of names of monks.

It means that probably there was something

circulating in my belly...

without I was conscious of it - otherwise...

Otherwise, I could have given another answer to...

but it was unconscious - there was something...

Third explanation: one is two pieces, the other...

Third: at that point,

I'm finally seated some years at my university chair - full professorship.

I had published 50 books,

I was translated already in English, in French... so...

I was at the point of your life in which either you like

humbly escape to Africa to sell guns

or you escape with a Cuban ballerina

and abandon the family

or you write a novel... to do something different.

The real surprise and the real pleasure

was that writing doesn't mean to take a pen and to trace alphabetical...

It's starting a research.

For 'The Name of the Rose', the research was very short -

no more than two years - because it was about the Middle Ages.

and I had studied and written about, so it was enough to open...

and I get the files and files are falling at my feet.

But, with the 'Pendulum', it took eight years.

And, for the other novels - six years per novel.

And, that is the fascinating aspect of the...

of telling a story - to create a world,

to decide how our spaces, characters...

So, it..

Except for 'The Name of the Rose', I repeat, for the others,

for at least two years I didn't write.

I was creating a world in which my character then could move with ease.

That is the most fascinating part of the story:

to stay six years in which nobody knows what you are doing,

but, everything you are doing, even to drink a coffee,

can give you an idea about the story.

Then the writing, when it comes, is pretty felicitous.

But, then you have moments in which you need to close everything in your drawer

and to stay 15 days doing something else - okay.

But, that's natural.

It was told by many, many, many writers: you have a moment of crisis

in which you don't know how to get out of a certain situation.

At that time, I am usually helped by swimming,

either in a swimming pool or in the sea.

You swim and you...

and you think.

And, when swimming with your body very relaxed,

you have a lot of new ideas.

I always repeat it is not the author who writes the novel -

the author posits some starting points.

Then, the novel writes himself-- by itself.

You have to follow the logic of the characters.

I didn't start this story

thinking of a journalist called Braggadocio:

it... he arrived in the middle of the story and obliged me to follow him.

I have first of all to create a world.

I have a lot of drawings in which... for 'The Name of the Rose'

I designed all the faces of the monks,

which were not so useful because then I changed it.

But, I needed to have points of reference.

For the labyrinth of the library

I designed, I don't know, 50, 60 different labyrinths.

studying all the existing labyrinths.

For 'The Island of the Day Before', I designed all the interior of the ship -

very complicated with a staircase, a ladder there...

because I had to know

how my character could move.

But, when the German publisher -

you know the Germans are always precise and -

wanted to reproduce the design on the book, I said: 'No'.

I had to know what happened - the reader has to be as...

as confused as the character.

First of all, for me,

there is a radical difference between prose and poetry.

In poetry, the words come first...

and then, what you have to say follows.

There was the great Italian poet, Eugenio Montale.

Another poet who had even a love affair with Montale

wrote recently - before her death -

some anecdotal stories about Montale

who had disappeared after the Nobel Prize.

And, she remembered that

one beautiful poem of Montale was speaking of certain flowers -

I think were anemones, but it doesn't matter -

flowers with a beautiful name.

One day, they were walking...

and there were anemones there.

And, Montale says: 'Ah, how beautiful, what [are they]?'

'You wrote an entire poem about them'.

'Ah', he said, 'my poems are about words, not about things'.

It means that the poems of Montale are full of references to flowers.

He never saw those flowers:

he was reacting to the words - the words started it.

With prose it is different.

First, there is a world - a WORLD.

In this world, there's certain things happen

and your language has to follow the story, so...

I am very... I am a chameleon.

A chameleon - the animal that... because in 'The Name of the Rose',

my style was the one of the medieval chronicle -

very simple, very elementary...

In 'The Island of the Day Before', which takes place in the Baroque Era...

I did my best to imitate the Baroque Languages

so I read many, many authors of that time.

I paid an enormous attention not to use words that

at that time were not used.

So then, after the novel, I cancelled a lot of words

because I realised that they were...

posterior, and so, I had to substitute them with...

So, every story demands its own language.

I wrote a book called 'Lector in Fabula'

about narrativity

in which I make a radical distinction

between the empirical reader and the model reader.

The empirical reader is the reader which exists.

So, Barbara Cartland

or - I don't know - the author of pornographic novels

or very elementary detection stories,

looks at the pre-existing reader:

'I write for the housewife...

'I write for young people'.

I think that serious authors, on the contrary,

build up - construct - their reader.

The first of my Italian publisher

that was immediately enthusiastic of 'In the Name of the Rose', he said:

'But it's a... the initial descriptions with historical events are too long'.

I said: 'No, I want to prepare the reader to face a narrative situation,

'so he has to make a penitence.

'If it is unable to do, okay, go!'

[Interviewer:] That's really the exact opposite of Dan Brown, for instance.

He doesn't do that, even though some people say that

it's the same plot more or less--

[Eco:] Dan Brown writes for credulous readers.

But, once I met him - he's one of my characters.

He's one of the characters of 'Foucault's Pendulum'.

Dan Brown and me, we read the same books,

but he took them seriously.

On the contrary, I tried to give

a grotesque representation of those stories.

He took them seriously who... he didn't,

but he wanted the reader [to take] them seriously.

I don't know if Dan Brown is a believer or an [artist],

but he wants to produce believing.

I think that everybody that writes something hopes to become Homer,

but one knows that it is a sort of imaginary projection.

I can only give you a cue.

When starting speaking with some friends about the fact that

I had finished a novel,

we said we should give it to Franco Maria Ricci publisher

who was a very... very aristocratic publisher

who made a collection of books directed by Jorge Luis Borges,

but few, few thousand copies.

Okay, that's the first idea was that

So, I wanted to give it to it to a small publisher.

I didn't want to

give it to my normal publisher because I thought it was too easy

and he would have accepted it immediately.

No, I wanted to be judged.

But...

in the space of two weeks, I received two calls:

one from Giulio Einaudi, the great other publisher,

another from the director of Mondadori

who said: 'We know you have written a novel:

'we'll take it without reading it?'

At that point I said: 'Nothing to do'.

I gave it to my normal publisher who was enthusiastic and said:

'Ah, we can start with 30,000 copies'.

'You're crazy, okay then'.

So then, step-by-step, that 30,000 became 300,000.

It was gradual so it gave me time to adapt myself to this situation.

No, it didn't change my life in this sense because I was...

living pretty comfortably even before - I wrote articles for the newspapers

and had my salary as a university professor...

So, I was not poor

and I didn't need to buy a yacht.

Simply, the success reduced my freedom.

Because, you cannot go to the theatre for the opening

because you are besieged, you cannot...

So, I was obliged to live more privately with friends and in the countryside.

My old friend Gabriel García Márquez, he wrote a lot of beautiful novels,

but people asked always him for

'One Hundred Years of Solitude' - you are condemned.

Only some authors can escape this curse

if their best novel comes at the end,

but if one successful novel comes at the beginning.

you are condemned to speak all of your life of that one.

[Interviewer:] And it's okay with you? [Eco:] No, because I - for instance -

I think that the best novel I wrote was the 'Pendulum'

and not 'The Name of the Rose' - that the other ones were...

But, okay, I am... in this moment before you arrived

I was reading a treatment that Italian television want to make

ten episodes out of 'The Name of the Rose'.

You cannot escape it.

No, you try to escape but your publisher says:

'No, please do it'.

After 'The Name of the Rose',

I start... usually...

a book - not only a novel - is like a child:

it [takes] two years to grow it up, to follow it...

This is a case of: 'I am following my book -

'I cannot think of another... of another one'.

Two years: like a child.

So, after the second year, you start...

to say 'ah' and if I had to write another novel...

And I... the first time I said: 'but, I think that

'in "The Name of the Rose" I have proved everything:

'there is nothing else I can tell'.

And, suddenly I was struck by two images.

One was the one of the pendulum that I saw at the age of 20 in Paris.

And, the other was the image of a boy playing the trumpet in the cemetery.

That was an event that really happened to me.

And, I said: 'Ah, a novel starting with the pendulum

'and ending with the cemetery - fine'.

What to put in between: it took me eight years to discover.

But, at that moment, I realised that to write a novel meant

to start from an image.

In 'The Name of the Rose' was the image of a monk

being poisoned while reading a book.

For 'The Island of the Day Before' was

to discover that there were marvellous watches with the world time

and the date - 'ah' -

and so on and so on.

You start from a poignant image.

I mean - me.

Probably another author has another procedure.

I don't know - it's not my... problem.

But, for me, it happened always like that.

You start from the image and then - I repeat - the novel goes by itself.

If you have time - if you don't want to do it immediately.

I am...

a devotee of the great Indian proverb:

'Sit on the banks of the river and wait -

'the corpse of your enemy will pass one day or another'.

They computer changed a lot.

For instance, but I...

I consider the computer a very spiritual engine...

because you can write at the speed of your thought.

Sometimes you need the resistance of matter -

you would like to carve what you think on a stone.

and sometimes you need a pen,

but usually with the computer you follow the speed of your thought.

Then you have all the time you need to correct, to cancel, to remake...

In this sense, at least, it helped me a lot.

'The Name of the Rose' was not written on the computer

because it didn't exist at that time.

It was not in commerce - the personal computer.

But, immediately after, I was helped I think - yes...

a lot.

That can increase your productivity

because you are asked to write a lot of things

and you recycle always the same article changing the beginning and the end.

Okay.

And then it can help your research obviously.

For instance, why did this novel [take] me only one year?

First, because part of the events were belonging to my personal memory.

Second, because if you wanted the autopsy of Mussolini

you find it immediately in the internet - you have not to make remote research.

Sometimes, on the contrary, you have to...

to walk through libraries or to places - places for me is very important -

to visit the places.

When I wrote 'The Island of the Day Before' I spent...

one month about in the southern islands

otherwise I couldn't have described the colours.

So, visiting places and...

which is a part of the research.

I always say if, in a novel, I have to write

'once arrived at the station of Lyon

'he stepped down from the train to buy a newspaper',

I have to know if there is a kiosk - if there is a newsstand -

close to the train.

I have to go to Lyon even though the episode is

not so important for the story.

I have to know the number of steps in a staircase

in order to make my character climb up.

Being a philosopher...

and a semiotician studying science and communication,

I know how it is difficult to establish if something is true,

while it's less difficult to establish that something is false.

So, passing through the study of fakes and false,

it's easier to understand what can be probably true.

And, that's why I was always fascinated by

by those things.

I am a rare books collector too.

And, my collection concerns only...

fake books - books that say the contrary of...

So, I don't have Galileo Galilei

but I have Ptolemy because it was wrong about

the movement of the Earth.

All together in different places there should be about 50,000.

Here, when I arrived 25 years ago there were 30,000,

but since, many of them... and I think...

I have no more time to count them,

but I think there are 35,000 - 35,000--

[Interviewer:] Do you have time to read...

alot or...

Another provocative way to answer such a question is:

I don't read - I write.

You have to take into account that

one [who] has - by age - has worked as a university professor

sometimes is able to understand what the book says

after the first ten pages.

You know if you have to go on or if it is enough.

You are helped also by your experience in reading.

There is a cursory reading - not the quick reading of which...

once Woody Allen said: 'I am using the quick reading -

'I read "War and Peace" -

'he speaks of Russia'.

There are my books - translations and...

From there to...

and they are books on me.

[Interviewer:] About you, yes, okay.