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| INTERVIEWER
What are you trying to show?
CELINE
Emotion. Savy, the biologist, said something appropriate: In the beginning there was emotion, and the verb wasn’t there at all. When you tickle an amoeba she withdraws, she has emotion, she doesn’t speak but she does have emotion. A baby cries, a horse gallops. Only us, they’ve given us the verb. That gives you the politician, the writer, the prophet. The verb’s horrible. You can’t smell it. But to get to the point where you can translate this emotion, that’s a difficulty no one imagines. . . . It’s ugly. . . . It’s superhuman. . . . It’s a trick that’ll kill a guy.
NOTE: We regret that we have been unable to obtain web rights to this interview. We have worked hard to make this archive as complete as possible, and hope you’ll forgive us the omission. If you would still like to read this interview, a copy of the issue in which it originally appeared is available here.
The Editors |
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| Related Links |
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| Authors Mentioned |
| Paul Morand, Henri Barbusse, Charles Ferdinand Ramuz |
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