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Le Clézio admire Sweden

Culture | 2008-12-06 | 1 comment

The Nobel Laureate in literature, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, has arrived in Sweden.

Today he met the press and on Wednesday will he receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. The 68-year-old author says that he admires the Swedish country and that his largest source of inspiration is the book ´The Catcher in the Rye´ by J.D. Salinger.

With his hands on his back and a hard-set facial expression does Le Clézio walk in to the press conference at Grand Hôtel in Stockholm Saturday morning. Dressed in jeans, a blue/grey jacket and a black piqué shirt he sits down in a armchair with golden scrollwork.

The international press asks questions by turns in English and French and many of them are naturally about his authorship.

- I mostly feel as a storyteller. I have no purpose with what I am writing, in that way that I do not try to attack or defend something. I simply feel a strong need to write. I write for the moment, not for eternity. It is hard for me to analyse what i am reaching for, my humble reason is to write until the end, he says, holding the armrest in a strong grip with one of his hands.

As a child Le Clézio had no plans to become an author. Instead he wanted to be a sailor, but his eyesight was to poor for that. His second choice was to become an architect, but lines and mathematics was not some of his better

- My third choice was to be a writer. You simply have to invent yourself.

He is very fond of Sweden. Both the nature and the political climate.

- My picture of Sweden has not changed since I was twenty. It is a free, open and generous country who have stayed loyal to its philosophy and politics. In some sense a socialist pattern.

During his long time as an author he has published more than 40 books. One of his stories, Mondo, has also been made into a movie.

His largest source of inspiration, he says, is J.D. Salinger and especially his masterpiece ´The Catcher in the Rye´.

- Think about being able to get under the skin of a 14-year-old boy. It is unique in the history of literature. I have never recovered from that experience.

David Jonasson
david.jonasson@stockholmnews.com
 

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Readers' comments

2008-12-07 03:58 Farfarello wrote:
Saviano said"Royal Swedish Academy is the ghota of literature".How An Italian writer can say this? if the first University in Sweden has been founded by the Roman church only in 1477 ? and we use the word "University" OK,, but the students were no more than 12,,,and in the same way people able to read and write in all Sweden has never been more than 20 until the last century among the population of 3 million,I admire among the French only CELINE,he said I wrote for money, to buy one house


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