"Destiny is the form one gives to one's desire."
The novelist, graduate of classics and former Latin teacher, makes it a point of honor to make every moment of her life the guideline of a destiny of joys and sorrows that nourish her writing.
This great lover of the French language agreed to confide in Le
Figaro
and to take part in our Proust questionnaire.
To discover
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LE FIGARO.
- Since when have letters occupied an important place in your life?
Irène FRAIN.
-
When I returned to the second year of elementary school, I did an essay that my teacher really appreciated.
And then I became good at French.
It was magical for me to be able to re-enchant life with things I invented.
It wasn't just the authors of my dictations who could do that.
Gradually, I began to write letters to my friends.
I reinvented for them my daily life, which was very boring.
In a way, I began to write taking myself for Madame de Sévigné.
Read the “Sur le bout de la langue” file: (re)discover the French language with our guests
What is your writing ritual?
Writing is a desire.
A writer first obeys, it seems to me, a sense of urgency.
He writes all the time, even while sleeping.
But I just have a small superstition which translates into the possession of an effigy of the god of writers, Ganesh: the Hindu elephant god who is also the god of all people who are on the roads and therefore in danger.
He especially protects the writers because he broke his defense to be able to write the Mahabharata, under the dictation of a sage.
You taught Latin.
Is learning this language essential?
Yes.
Because behind the Latin words, there are old Indo-European roots that reveal to us the true meaning of the words.
The verb "scribere", which means "to write", for example, hides an old root, "sker", meaning "to scrape", "to incise".
This refers to the noise the tools made on the stone when scraped.
» Check out the video for the full interview with Irène Frain.