Imaginary interviews
A voice reconstructed from what sources tell us. Each interview is a dramatisation — not attested historical testimony.
Imaginary interviewXerxes I · 518 av. J.-C. — 464 av. J.-C.
Le sable crisse sous les sandales quand on gravit les larges degrés de l'Apadana de Persépolis, entre les tributaires sculptés dans la pierre. Le Grand Roi reçoit sous les hautes colonnes de bois…
Imaginary interviewThemistocles · 523 av. J.-C. — 458 av. J.-C.
Nous retrouvons Thémistocle à Magnésie du Méandre, cité d'Asie Mineure où le roi perse l'a installé gouverneur après son exil. Le vieux stratège reçoit dans la fraîcheur du soir, entouré des collines…
- Imaginary interview
Tapputi-Belatekallim · 1200 av. J.-C. — ?
On dit qu'à Babylone, quand le vent tourne, l'odeur de l'atelier royal précède l'atelier lui-même. C'est là, entre les jarres et la fumée des braseros, que Tapputi-Belatekallim, intendante du palais,…
Imaginary interviewTamar of Georgia · 1166 — 1213
L'on m'a menée jusqu'à la salle d'audience du palais de Tbilissi, où la reine reçoit encore, dit-on, les rapports de ses provinces avant l'office du soir. Une lampe à huile brûle près d'une icône de…
Imaginary interviewSisygambis · 301 av. J.-C. — 322 av. J.-C.
On m'a menée jusqu'à la salle où j'ai consenti à recevoir cet étranger venu d'au-delà des mers. Depuis Issos, j'ai appris à parler à des vainqueurs ; celui-ci ne porte pas d'épée, seulement des…
Imaginary interviewSelim II · 1524 — 1574
Le lieu où se noue cette conversation échappe au temps ordinaire des chroniques : quelque part entre les jardins parfumés du palais de Topkapı et le marbre humide des bains impériaux, Selim II,…
Imaginary interviewSardanapalus
Le vent chaud du soir souffle sur les hauteurs du Tigre, à Ninive, dans les derniers jours du siège. Nous avons obtenu, par une licence que seule la légende autorise, de nous entretenir avec…
Imaginary interviewRûmî · 1207 — 1273
On raconte qu'un voyageur venu d'Occident aurait obtenu, par la grâce d'un disciple, une audience dans la maison de Konya où le maître reçoit chaque après-midi. Le tapis est étendu, le thé refroidit…
Imaginary interviewRoxelane
L'entretien se tient dans les appartements privés de Hürrem Sultan au palais de Topkapi, non loin des jardins clos où elle a coutume de se promener. Entre deux audiences, elle a accepté de revenir,…
Imaginary interviewPico della Mirandola · 1463 — 1494
Nous retrouvons Jean Pic de la Mirandole dans sa bibliothèque florentine, à l'automne 1493, peu après que le pape Alexandre VI a levé la condamnation qui pesait sur lui depuis six ans. Entouré de…
Imaginary interviewOmar Khayyam · 1048 — 1131
Nous retrouvons Omar Khayyam un soir d'été à Nichapur, dans le jardin attenant à sa maison, peu après qu'il a refermé ses tables de calcul destinées à l'observatoire d'Ispahan. Une coupe de vin…
Imaginary interviewUmar ibn al-Khattab · 586 — 644
Nous retrouvons Omar ibn al-Khattâb dans sa maison de pisé à Médine, entre la prière de l'aube et l'audience publique qu'il tient chaque matin sous l'auvent de la mosquée du Prophète. Le calife nous…
Imaginary interviewNizami Ganjavi · 1141 — 1209
On dit que Nizami ne quitta jamais vraiment Ganja, sinon par la pensée. Dans la cour intérieure de sa maison de pierre et de brique, près de la fontaine, un visiteur venu d'ailleurs le trouve assis…
Imaginary interviewNasreddin Hodja · 1208 — 1284
On raconte qu'il suffit de s'asseoir à l'ombre du grand noyer d'Akşehir, une écuelle de yaourt à la main, pour voir passer le Hodja sur son âne. C'est là, contre le mur bas de sa cour, entre l'appel…
Imaginary interviewMissak Manouchian · 1906 — 1944
Nous sommes le 21 février 1944, dans une cellule de la Prison de Fresnes. Missak Manouchian attend, avant l'aube, d'être conduit au Mont-Valérien. Il accepte, une dernière fois, de répondre par la…
Imaginary interviewKhalil Gibran · 1883 — 1931
L'entretien se déroule un soir d'automne 1928, dans l'atelier du 51 West Tenth Street que Gibran surnomme « l'Ermitage », au cœur de Greenwich Village. Des toiles inachevées et des carnets de croquis…
Imaginary interviewIbn Arabi · 1165 — 1240
Damas, quartier de Salihiyya, sur les pentes du mont Qasiyun. Dans une pièce modeste encombrée de cahiers et de feuillets, le vieux maître reçoit un visiteur venu l'interroger sur sa vie et son…
Imaginary interviewHusayn ibn Ali · 626 — 680
L'entretien se tient au camp de Karbala, sous la tente de Husayn ibn Ali, dans les heures qui précèdent l'aube du dixième jour de Muharram. La tradition prête à l'imam, descendant du Prophète, une…
Imaginary interviewHolofernes
Le vent du désert soulève un pan de toile pourpre, dressée pour l'éternité entre les pages du Livre de Judith. C'est là, dans la pénombre d'une tente qui sent le vin et l'encens, que le général…
Imaginary interviewFatima Zahra · 604 — 632
Nous la rencontrons dans sa modeste maison de terre crue et de palmes, attenante à la mosquée du Prophète à Médine, un soir après la dernière prière. Près du seuil reposent la meule à grain et les…
Imaginary interviewDido
La rencontre a lieu au sommet de la colline de Byrsa, dominant la baie où s'élèvent encore les échafaudages de la jeune cité. Le vent de mer agite les tentures de lin du palais en construction ; la…
Imaginary interviewDarius I · 549 av. J.-C. — 485 av. J.-C.
On dit qu'il faut attendre le crépuscule pour être reçu sous l'apadana de Persépolis, lorsque la lumière rase les colonnes et que les délégations du jour se sont retirées. Le Grand Roi accepte, ce…
Imaginary interviewCyrus II · 599 av. J.-C. — 529 av. J.-C.
On me retrouve à Pasargades, dans le jardin clos que j'ai fait tracer entre les canaux, non loin du tombeau que je me suis choisi de mon vivant. Un scribe venu de loin, muni d'une tablette fraîche,…
Imaginary interviewCambyses II · 558 av. J.-C. — 521 av. J.-C.
Nous retrouvons Cambyse II dans le palais de Memphis, quelques mois après sa victoire sur les rives du Nil, la ville des Égyptiens désormais sienne. Le Grand Roi accepte de raconter, dans sa langue…
Imaginary interviewBahá'u'lláh · 1817 — 1892
Nous sommes à Bahjí, non loin de Saint-Jean-d'Acre, dans les dernières années du XIXe siècle. Le prisonnier d'hier reçoit désormais ses visiteurs dans le jardin du manoir, entre deux tasses de thé…
Imaginary interviewAntiochus III · 241 av. J.-C. — 186 av. J.-C.
L'entretien imaginé se déroule en 187 avant notre ère : la paix d'Apamée pèse sur ses épaules, son trésor est à sec, et Antiochos III remonte vers les hautes terres de Perse en quête d'or. Entre deux…
Imaginary interviewAnahita
Au pied du mont Hukairya, là où l'on raconte que les eaux du monde prennent leur source, la rencontre se tient à l'heure où le premier feu rituel s'allume dans les temples. Ardvi Sura Anahita descend…
Imaginary interviewAmon · 663 av. J.-C. — 639 av. J.-C.
Quelque part entre les pages du Second Livre des Rois et la mémoire du jardin d'Ouzza, hors du compte des années de règne, la voix d'Amon consent à répondre. Fils de Manassé, quatorzième roi de Juda,…
Imaginary interviewAl-Kindi · 801 — 870
On m'a conduit jusqu'à la cour intérieure d'une maison de Bagdad, non loin de la Bayt al-Hikma, où des rouleaux de parchemin s'entassent encore malgré les épreuves passées. Le maître des lieux, qu'on…
Imaginary interviewAl-Jazari · 1164 — 1206
L'atelier du palais artukide d'Amid sent le cuivre chaud et l'eau stagnante des bassins d'essai. Al-Jazari, la barbe grise, quitte un instant le mécanisme d'une horloge inachevée pour recevoir le…
Imaginary interviewAl-Farghani · 800 — 870
Le vent du soir agite les manuscrits sur la terrasse de la Maison de la Sagesse, à Bagdad, où l'astronome Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Farghani range son astrolabe après une nuit d'observation. Il accepte,…
Imaginary interviewAisha · 614 — 678
Nous sommes reçus dans la petite hujra attenante à la mosquée de Médine, où Aïcha, désormais âgée, continue de recevoir juristes et curieux derrière un rideau tendu entre les deux pans de la pièce.…
Imaginary interviewAbu Bakr as-Siddiq · 573 — 634
On dit qu'on l'a trouvé un matin recevant une délégation tribale dans sa maison de pisé, près de la mosquée de Médine, un pan de son manteau usé encore couvert de la poussière du désert. Il a accepté…
Imaginary interviewZhu Xi · 1130 — 1200
La pluie tombe sur les toits de tuiles grises de l'académie de Wuyi, dans les montagnes du Fujian. Zhu Xi reçoit dans une salle d'étude tapissée de rouleaux de soie, un pinceau encore humide posé sur…
Imaginary interviewZhou Enlai · 1898 — 1976
Zhongnanhai, fin d'après-midi. Dans un bureau sobre où s'entassent télégrammes et rapports, une théière fume sur un plateau tandis que Zhou Enlai, encore vêtu de son costume boutonné jusqu'au col,…
Imaginary interviewZheng He · 1371 — 1433
Nous retrouvons l'amiral Zheng He à bord de son vaisseau amiral, ancré au large de Calicut, en cette année 1433 qui sera la dernière de sa septième et ultime expédition. L'homme qui a mené trois…
Imaginary interviewYukio Mishima · 1925 — 1970
Nous retrouvons Yukio Mishima dans sa maison de Tokyo au décor baroque et théâtral, ce matin du 25 novembre 1970. Il vient de remettre à son éditeur le dernier tome de sa grande tétralogie ;…
Imaginary interviewYi Sun-sin · 1545 — 1598
Nous rejoignons l'amiral Yi Sun-sin sur le pont de son vaisseau amiral, quelque part entre les batailles d'Okpo et de Noryang, dans cet instant suspendu où la mémoire embrasse toute une vie. Autour…
Imaginary interviewYasunari Kawabata · 1899 — 1972
Kamakura, automne 1971. Dans une maison entourée de céramiques anciennes et d'estampes, à deux pas des temples, Yasunari Kawabata reçoit un visiteur. Il est las depuis la mort de son disciple…
Imaginary interviewYasujirō Ozu · 1903 — 1963
Nous retrouvons Yasujirō Ozu dans sa maison de Kamakura, à deux pas du temple zen d'Engaku-ji où il aime marcher le matin. Assis en seiza sur le tatami, une théière rouge fumant entre nous, il répond…
Imaginary interviewXuanzang · 602 — 664
La rencontre a lieu dans une cellule de la Pagode de l'Oie Sauvage, à Chang'an, où des piles de manuscrits sanscrits attendent d'être traduits. Le moine, déjà âgé, interrompt son travail de copiste…
Imaginary interviewXiwangmu
Le rendez-vous a été fixé au bord du Lac de Jade, sur les flancs du mont Kunlun, à l'heure où la lumière change de couleur sans qu'on sache si c'est l'aube ou le crépuscule. Xiwangmu, Reine-Mère…
- Imaginary interview
Wang Zhenyi · 1768 — 1797
La rencontre a lieu dans un pavillon ouvert sur un jardin de Nankin, une nuit claire où la Lune monte lentement au-dessus des toits incurvés. Une lampe à huile brûle sur une table basse, à côté d'un…
Imaginary interviewWang Wei · 699 — 759
On dit qu'il faut gravir les monts Zhongnan par un sentier de pierre et de bambous pour trouver la retraite de Wangchuan, là où l'ancien vice-ministre a choisi de finir ses jours entre les vers et le…
Imaginary interviewUtagawa Hiroshige · 1797 — 1858
Nous retrouvons Utagawa Hiroshige dans son atelier d'Edo, à l'automne 1857, l'année où il achève les dernières planches des Cent vues célèbres d'Edo. Il a pris l'habit bouddhiste l'année précédente…
Imaginary interviewTu Long
Nous retrouvons Tu Long dans son studio de Yin, sur les rives du Zhejiang, un soir d'automne après sa disgrâce du ministère des Rites. Sur la table, une pierre à encre encore humide et un…
Imaginary interviewTojo · 1884 — 1948
Décembre 1948, cellule de la prison de Sugamo à Tokyo, quelques jours avant l'exécution. Le verdict du Tribunal militaire international pour l'Extrême-Orient vient de tomber. Un journaliste obtient…
Imaginary interviewChiang Kai-shek · 1887 — 1975
Taipei, résidence de Shilin, au crépuscule d'une carrière qui a traversé un demi-siècle de guerres. Le Généralissime reçoit dans son bureau, entre une carte du continent perdu et une Bible ouverte…
Imaginary interviewTamamo-no-Mae
On dit qu'il faut se rendre au crépuscule sur les hauteurs de Nasu-Yumoto, là où la vapeur monte du sol fissuré, pour espérer qu'elle consente à parler. Elle a accepté, à la condition qu'on ne…
Imaginary interviewSun Yat-sen · 1866 — 1925
Pékin, hiver 1925. Sun Yat-sen reçoit dans une chambre modeste, affaibli par la maladie mais l'esprit resté vif, quelques semaines avant sa mort. Il vient de dicter son testament politique et…
Imaginary interviewSubutai · 1175 — 1248
On dit qu'il faut suivre les relais de poste et changer trois fois de monture pour atteindre, en Mongolie centrale, le campement où le vieux général consent à parler. Il reçoit assis sur un tapis de…
Imaginary interviewSorghaghtani Beki · 1190 — 1252
Nous rencontrons Sorghaghtani Beki en 1251, sous la grande yourte de son campement, peu après que son fils Möngke eut été proclamé grand khan à Karakorum. Le koumis circule encore parmi les convives…
Imaginary interviewSima Tan · 164 av. J.-C. — 109 av. J.-C.
Nous rencontrons Sima Tan en cet automne de l'an 110 avant notre ère, dans sa demeure de Chang'an. Grand Astrologue vieilli et affaibli, il vient d'apprendre qu'il ne pourra rejoindre l'empereur Wu…
Imaginary interviewShinran · 1173 — 1263
Nous rencontrons Shinran dans les dernières années de sa vie, revenu à Kyoto après deux décennies passées à prêcher dans les campagnes de l'Est. Il reçoit, un pinceau encore à la main, dans une pièce…
Imaginary interviewQilin
Le vent tombe sur les collines proches de Qufu, à l'heure où les bergers rentrent leurs troupeaux et où l'on dit que les présages se montrent le plus volontiers. C'est là, au bord d'un ruisseau que…
Imaginary interviewPrince Shōtoku · 574 — 622
L'audience se tient au palais d'Ikaruga, à l'heure où les lampes à huile remplacent la lumière du jour. Le régent reçoit assis près d'un rouleau de sūtra à peine refermé, l'encre encore fraîche sur…
Imaginary interviewPegasus
La rencontre a lieu au crépuscule, sur les pentes du mont Hélicon, près d'une source qui chante encore sous les roseaux. Une ombre blanche plane au-dessus des arbres avant de se poser, ailes…
Imaginary interviewNatsume Soseki · 1867 — 1916
On le retrouve dans son cabinet de travail à Tokyo, une pile de feuilles quadrillées à portée de main, la moustache soignée, le regard d'un homme qui a traversé deux mondes sans jamais tout à fait se…
Imaginary interviewMurasaki Shikibu · 970 — 1100
On dit qu'il faut, pour me trouver, guetter la lueur d'une lampe derriere les cloisons peintes du palais de l'imperatrice Shoshi, a Heian-kyo, quand la cour dort deja. C'est la, un rouleau de papier…
Imaginary interviewKublai Khan · 1215 — 1294
Nous sommes reçus dans les jardins d'hiver du palais de Khanbalik, sous des toits de tuiles vernissées que ses hôtes étrangers comparent à des écailles d'or. L'empereur Kubilai Khan, petit-fils de…
Imaginary interviewKhutulun · 1260 — 1306
Le vent de la steppe de Talas fait claquer le feutre de la grande ger de Kaidu, où l'on m'a fait asseoir près du feu central, une coupe de koumiss à la main. Khutulun entre, encore vêtue de son deel…
Imaginary interviewKenji Mizoguchi · 1898 — 1956
Nous retrouvons Kenji Mizoguchi dans une pièce attenante aux studios Daiei à Kyoto, entre deux prises d'un tournage qui n'en finit pas. Une lanterne de papier éteinte traîne sur une table, à côté…
Imaginary interviewKatsukawa Shunsho · 1726 — 1793
La rencontre se tient un soir de fin d'été à Edo, dans l'atelier de bois du peintre, non loin du quartier des théâtres. Les blocs de cerisier fraîchement gravés sèchent contre le mur, et l'on entend…
Imaginary interviewHōnen · 1133 — 1212
Sur les collines de l'est de Kyōto, à l'ermitage de Yoshimizu, l'air sent l'encens et le papier des sûtras. Le vieux moine reçoit son visiteur entre deux sessions de récitation, un chapelet de bois…
Imaginary interviewGenmei · 661 — 722
L'entretien se tient dans une salle du palais de Heijō, sur des nattes fraîches, tandis qu'un léger parfum d'encens flotte encore des cérémonies du matin. Genmei, impératrice douairière, reçoit son…
Imaginary interviewFaxian · 337 — 422
On dit qu'il faut s'asseoir dans la cour du monastère de Jingzhou à l'heure où la lumière décline pour trouver le vieux moine encore penché sur ses tablettes. Faxian, plus de quatre-vingts ans,…
Imaginary interviewCai Lun · 48 — 121
L'an 108 après J.-C., dans les cours des ateliers impériaux de Luoyang. Le rapport sur le nouveau support a déjà été agréé par le trône, les artisans du Shang Fang battent encore l'écorce dans les…
Imaginary interviewBodhidharma · 440 — 540
On dit qu'il faut gravir longtemps le mont Song avant d'atteindre la grotte où le moine venu d'Occident se tient immobile, face à la paroi de pierre. Un voyageur lettré, envoyé par la cour, a fini…
Imaginary interviewBi Sheng · 990 — 1052
Nous retrouvons Bi Sheng un soir d'automne dans son atelier près de Huanggang, dans le Hubei, où les plaques de fer refroidissent encore sur l'établi et où flotte une odeur de résine de pin chauffée.…
Imaginary interviewAkiko Yosano · 1878 — 1942
Nous retrouvons Akiko Yosano dans son bureau de Tokyo, au ras du tatami, entourée de dictionnaires et des pages de sa traduction du Dit du Genji. Les cloisons de papier laissent filtrer la lumière du…
- Imaginary interview
Yaa Akyaa · 1840 — ?
Nous la retrouvons dans sa modeste demeure de l'île de Mahé, aux Seychelles, où l'exil a fini par ressembler à une seconde vie. Le fils qu'elle a suivi jusqu'ici, l'Asantehene Prempeh Ier, loge non…
Imaginary interviewThutmose III · 1480 av. J.-C. — 1424 av. J.-C.
La rencontre se tient dans la salle dite « jardin botanique » de l'Akh-menu, à Karnak, sous les bas-reliefs de plantes et d'animaux rapportés du Levant. Thoutmôsis III, coiffé du khépresh bleu qu'il…
Imaginary interviewTaytu Betul · 1851 — 1918
Nous retrouvons Taytu Betul dans les appartements du Guébi, le palais impérial d'Addis-Abeba qu'elle a elle-même fait bâtir, un soir où les azmari accordent leurs masenko dans la cour voisine. Une…
- Imaginary interview
Soundiata Keïta · 1190 — 1255
On dit qu'il faut, pour rencontrer un Mansa, patienter dans la cour de banco de Niani jusqu'à ce que les griots annoncent son arrivée. Soundiata Keïta reçoit ce jour-là sous l'arbre à palabres,…
- Imaginary interview
Soshangane · 1790 — 1859
On dit qu'il faut remonter le fleuve Sabi jusqu'à son embouchure pour trouver la cour de Soshangane, roi de Gaza, celui que les Portugais de la côte appellent Manikusse. On l'a retrouvé assis devant…
Imaginary interviewSmenkhkare · 1400 av. J.-C. — 1333 av. J.-C.
Le vent du désert soulève le sable sur les ruines silencieuses d'Akhetaton, la ville que son frère Akhenaton fit surgir du néant. C'est là, dans la pénombre du Grand Palais désormais vide de ses…
Imaginary interviewRanavalona I · 1788 — 1861
Nous sommes reçus au sommet de la colline d'Antananarivo, dans l'enceinte de bois du Manjakamiadana, où la reine consent — fait rare — à recevoir un visiteur porteur de questions. Les gardes se…
Imaginary interviewPatrice Lumumba · 1925 — 1961
Nous sommes début janvier 1961, au camp Hardy, à Thysville, où Patrice Lumumba est détenu depuis plusieurs semaines après son arrestation en pleine cavale vers Stanleyville. Dans l'attente d'un sort…
Imaginary interviewUnas · 2374 av. J.-C. — 2349 av. J.-C.
Le vent chaud balaie la nécropole de Saqqara lorsque nous descendons le couloir aux parois couvertes de hiéroglyphes bleu-vert, une torche à la main. Au bout du corridor, dans la chambre étoilée du…
Imaginary interviewNehanda Nyakasikana
La rencontre se tient au soir tombant dans la vallée de Mazowe, non loin du kraal où Nehanda reçoit les habitants du Mashonaland. Le feu est allumé, la mbira attend contre la calebasse, et l'air…
Imaginary interviewNeferure · 1500 av. J.-C. — 1500 av. J.-C.
Le vent du Nil s'est levé sur les terrasses de Deir el-Bahari, entre les colonnes peintes du temple que sa mère a fait bâtir pour Amon. C'est là, dans la lumière dorée du soir, que Néférourê a…
Imaginary interviewNarmer · 3200 av. J.-C. — 3124 av. J.-C.
Nous rencontrons Narmer devant le temple de Hierakonpolis, peu après la cérémonie où sa palette de schiste vient d'être déposée en offrande. Le roi, encore vêtu du pagne shendyt et coiffé pour…
Imaginary interviewMwana Kupona · 1810 — 1860
Le vent de kaskazi tombe sur l'île de Pate ; dans la cour intérieure de sa maison de pierre coraillée, une lampe à huile éclaire les zidaka sculptés. Mwana Kupona, la voix affaiblie mais le regard…
Imaginary interviewMoremi Ajasoro
On dit qu'à la veille du festival Edi, quand les tambours dùndún se taisent une heure avant l'aube, une présence consent à répondre à qui l'interroge sur les berges de l'Esimirin. C'est là, entre les…
Imaginary interviewMekatilili wa Menza · 1840 — 1925
Le soleil décline sur les collines proches de Kilifi, et devant sa case au toit de palmier, Mekatilili wa Menza noue son kanga avant de s'asseoir près du feu où se rassemble déjà la famille. C'est…
- Imaginary interview
Mansa Souleymane · 1400 — 1360
On dit qu'un rideau de soie sépare le Mansa du commun des visiteurs, et qu'un homme, le dugha, porte seul sa voix jusqu'aux oreilles des étrangers. Nous avons été reçus à Niani, dans la salle…
- Imaginary interview
Leymah Gbowee
Nous retrouvons Leymah Gbowee à Monrovia, non loin du marché de Vai Town où tout a commencé. Elle porte encore, plié sur une chaise, un de ces T-shirts blancs devenus l'emblème de son mouvement.…
Imaginary interviewKwame Nkrumah · 1909 — 1972
Sous les manguiers de la villa que Sékou Touré lui a offerte à Conakry, l'homme qu'on appelait l'Osagyefo reçoit un visiteur venu du continent qu'il n'a pas revu depuis 1966. Sur la table basse, un…
Imaginary interviewKimpa Vita · 1684 — 1706
Nous sommes en 1705, sur les pentes du plateau de Kibangu, où des milliers de fidèles suivent Kimpa Vita depuis des mois. Entre deux prédications, la prophétesse accepte de répondre, assise à même la…
Imaginary interviewKhufu · 2700 av. J.-C. — 2565 av. J.-C.
Nous voici reçus, à l'heure où Rê descend vers l'occident, sous l'ombre longue de l'Akhet Khoufou, dans le temple funéraire du plateau de Gizeh. La tradition veut qu'à ce moment le Ba du pharaon…
Imaginary interviewKassa
Dans la pénombre fraîche d'une case de banco du palais de Gao, quelques années après que son fils eut pris le titre d'Askia, un voyageur venu du Nord recueille les souvenirs de Kassa. Autour d'elle,…
Imaginary interviewIbn Khaldun · 1332 — 1406
Nous retrouvons Ibn Khaldoun au Caire, dans les dernières années de sa vie, entre deux audiences de la grande mosquée où il exerce la charge de cadi malikite. Le vieux savant accepte de revenir, une…
Imaginary interviewHoremheb · 1350 av. J.-C. — 1291 av. J.-C.
La scène se joue dans la première cour du temple de Karnak, à l'ombre du pylône encore couvert d'échafaudages de bois. Horemheb reçoit debout, le sceptre heqa à la main, entre deux audiences…
Imaginary interviewHanno the Navigator · 500 av. J.-C. — 500 av. J.-C.
Nous imaginons cette rencontre à Carthage, dans l'ombre du temple de Baal Hammon, peu après le retour d'Hannon de son grand périple le long des côtes atlantiques. La tablette de bronze qui portera un…
Imaginary interviewHannibal Barca · 246 av. J.-C. — 182 av. J.-C.
Nous sommes en 182 avant notre ère, sur la colline de Libyssa, en Bithynie, dans la villa modeste que le roi Prusias a concédée à un hôte encombrant. Le vieux général qui fit trembler Rome pendant…
Imaginary interviewHaile Selassie · 1892 — 1975
Le vent d'harmattan souffle doucement sur les jardins du Palais du Jubilé, à Addis-Abeba, en cette fin d'après-midi de 1967. Dans un salon aux tapis éthiopiens, l'Empereur reçoit, comme chaque jour,…
Imaginary interviewGamal Abdel Nasser · 1918 — 1970
Nous retrouvons Gamal Abdel Nasser un soir d'été, dans le salon sans faste de sa villa de Manchiyet el-Bakri, au Caire. Le président a troqué l'uniforme pour la gallabiya, une tasse de thé noir…
Imaginary interviewDjoser · 2800 av. J.-C. — 2700 av. J.-C.
Nous retrouvons Netjerikhet, que la postérité nommera Djéser, dans la cour à ciel ouvert de son complexe funéraire de Saqqarah, face à la pyramide à degrés encore parée de son calcaire blanc. Les…
Imaginary interviewBerenice I · 339 av. J.-C. — ?
Nous sommes vers 285 avant notre ère, dans les jardins du Palais royal d'Alexandrie, sur le cap Lochias, non loin du chantier du grand phare qui s'élève sur l'île de Pharos. Bérénice, désormais reine…
Imaginary interviewAy · 1400 av. J.-C. — 1400 av. J.-C.
On rencontre Aÿ dans les douze heures de la nuit qu'il traverse pour l'éternité, entre les portes peintes de l'Amdouat sur les parois de sa tombe WV23 — son ka, dit la tradition, y navigue sans fin…
Imaginary interviewAura Pokou
On dit qu'il faut arriver à Sakassou à la tombée du jour, quand les tambours se taisent et que la reine reçoit sous l'arbre à palabres. C'est là, dans la cour de terre battue de sa capitale…
Imaginary interviewAmina de Zaria · 1533 — 1610
Le vent du Sahel agite les pans de la tente de commandement dressée aux portes de Zazzau, entre deux campagnes. Amina, cotte de mailles posée sur un tabouret et casque à portée de main, reçoit…
- Imaginary interview
Akwa Boni · 1708 — ?
Le crépuscule tombe sur Sakassou, et sous les branches du grand fromager où se tenaient jadis les palabres, la voix d'Akwa Boni se laisse approcher — celle que les chants du sandogo invoquent encore…
Imaginary interviewAhmose · 1504 av. J.-C. — 1492 av. J.-C.
Nous retrouvons Ahmès dans les jardins de son palais, à Thèbes, non loin des bassins où se reflètent les colonnes peintes de cèdre. Elle vient de rentrer des prières du matin, une amulette oudjat…
Imaginary interviewTupaia · 1725 — 1770
Batavia, décembre 1770. Dans la moiteur du port hollandais où l'Endeavour répare ses voies d'eau après des mois de mer, Tupaia se repose sur une natte, affaibli par les fièvres qui frappent déjà…
Imaginary interviewTruganini · 1812 — 1876
Hobart, début de l'année 1876. Dans une pièce modeste où elle vit désormais sous la surveillance discrète des autorités coloniales, un visiteur venu consigner ses souvenirs s'assoit face à Truganini,…
Imaginary interviewTe Rauparaha · 1768 — 1849
Nous retrouvons Te Rauparaha à Ōtaki, sur la côte où il a choisi de finir ses jours, non loin de l'église dont il a soutenu la construction. Le vieux chef des Ngāti Toa, tout juste sorti de deux…
Imaginary interviewTe Puea Herangi · 1883 — 1952
En cette fin d'après-midi de 1949, le fleuve Waikato glisse, calme, au pied du marae de Tūrangawaewae à Ngāruawāhia. Dans la salle de réunion Māhinarangi, dont les sculptures portent encore l'odeur…
Imaginary interviewSalote Tupou III · 1900 — 1965
Nous retrouvons la reine Salote Tupou III sur la véranda du palais royal de Nukuʻalofa, face à l'océan, en cette fin de journée où la cour vient de se disperser après la cérémonie du kava. Elle a…
Imaginary interviewRatu Seru Cakobau · 1815 — 1883
On le rencontre à Bau, sur cette plate-forme de pierres où s'élève sa grande bure, non loin du tanoa où repose encore le kava de la veille. Ratu Seru Cakobau, ancien Tui Viti devenu vieil homme sous…
Imaginary interviewNellie Melba · 1861 — 1931
Nous sommes reçus à Coombe Cottage, la demeure de Dame Nellie Melba près de Melbourne, peu après ses adieux triomphaux de 1926. Assise près de la cheminée, elle a posé sur ses genoux un exemplaire…
Imaginary interviewKupe · 1000 — 1099
La rencontre se fait sur une hauteur qui domine l'estuaire de Hokianga, à l'endroit où l'on dit que Kupe reprit la mer pour son dernier retour vers Hawaiki. Le vent qui remonte de l'embouchure porte…
Imaginary interviewKamehameha I · 1758 — 1819
À Kailua-Kona, sur la côte occidentale de la Grande Île, le vieux roi reçoit sous l'ombre d'un auvent de chaume, non loin du rivage où mouillent encore quelques navires étrangers venus chercher le…
Imaginary interviewKa'ahumanu · 1768 — 1832
Nous sommes à Honolulu, dans les derniers mois de sa vie, au début de l'année 1832. Kaʻahumanu reçoit dans une maison de bois et de chaume proche de la nouvelle église en construction, une Bible…
Imaginary interviewHone Heke · 1807 — 1850
Nous retrouvons Hone Heke à Pākaraka, dans les collines qui dominent la baie des Îles, en cette année 1848 où les armes se sont tues. Le chef ngāpuhi reçoit assis près du feu, un manteau de plumes…
Imaginary interviewElsdon Best · 1856 — 1931
Nous sommes en 1928, dans un bureau du Dominion Museum à Wellington, encombré de carnets de terrain et de dossiers de la Polynesian Society. Elsdon Best, soixante-douze ans, ethnographe reconnu de…
Imaginary interviewDavid Unaipon · 1872 — 1967
Je retrouve David Unaipon un après-midi de conférence à Adélaïde, entre deux tournées de prédication, son carnet de croquis posé sur la table à côté d'une Bible usée. Le vieil homme que la presse…
Imaginary interviewAlbert Namatjira · 1902 — 1959
L'entretien se tient à Hermannsburg, sur la véranda de la mission, un aprÚs-midi de 1958. Des feuilles d'aquarelle sÚchent au vent chaud, punaisées sur une planche, et les MacDonnell Ranges violettes…
Imaginary interviewYusuf Balasaguni · 1019 — 1085
On me retrouve à Kachgar, dans une salle attenante à la cour du khan, parmi les cahiers de papier et les odeurs d'encre et de mouton rôti. J'ai accepté de répondre à ces questions venues d'un temps…
Imaginary interviewUlugh Beg · 1394 — 1449
Le ciel est encore clair au-dessus de Samarcande lorsque nous rejoignons Ulugh Beg dans la galerie souterraine de son observatoire, à quelques pas du grand arc du sextant Fakhri. Le…
Imaginary interviewSöyembikä · 1516 — 1557
Nous sommes à Kassimov, ville-khanat vassale du tsar, dans les dernières années de la vie de Söyembikä, remariée de force au khan Şah Ali après avoir perdu son propre trône. Loin des tours et des…
Imaginary interviewRudaki · 858 — 941
On dit qu'à Boukhara, dans les jardins de l'émir, on trouvait encore l'écho d'un luth et d'une voix éteinte depuis des siècles. C'est là, dans cette demeure aux tapis épais où il vécut ses années de…
Imaginary interviewRoxana · 346 av. J.-C. — 309 av. J.-C.
Nous rencontrons Roxane dans l'enceinte close d'Amphipolis, où Cassandre la retient avec son fils depuis que la citadelle de Macédoine est retombée sous sa coupe. Entre ces murs, loin des montagnes…
Imaginary interviewMahmoud al-Kashgari · 1005 — 1102
Nous retrouvons Mahmoud al-Kachgari à Bagdad, vers 1074, dans une chambre encombrée de cahiers où il vient d'achever la mise au net de son Dîwân Lughat al-Turk. Le calame encore taché d'encre, il…
Imaginary interviewKourmangazy · 1823 — 1896
On dit qu'il faut suivre la Volga jusqu'à ce que les roseaux remplacent les collines pour trouver la yourte du vieux küishi, près de Sakhma, dans la région d'Astrakhan. Kourmangazy y a posé sa selle…
Imaginary interviewDede Korkut · 0900 — 0999
On dit qu'il faut suivre les caravanes d'hiver jusqu'aux rives du Syr-Daria pour trouver Dede Korkut, assis près du feu, son kopuz posé sur les genoux. C'est là, entre le bêlement des troupeaux et la…
Imaginary interviewKhoja Ahrar · 1404 — 1490
Nous retrouvons Khoja Ahrar dans sa maison de Samarcande, entre les rangées de son registre foncier et le silence recueilli de la prière. Autour de lui, disciples et solliciteurs attendent leur tour,…
Imaginary interviewJami · 1414 — 1492
Nous retrouvons Abd al-Rahman Djami dans sa demeure attenante à la madrasa de Hérat, à l'ombre d'un jardin où une fontaine murmure sans relâche. Le vieux maître soufi, honoré des sultans timourides…
Imaginary interviewIsmail Samani · 849 — 907
Nous retrouvons l'émir dans la salle d'audience de son palais de Boukhara, un soir de l'an 905, entre deux dépêches venues du Khorassan. Les lampes à huile éclairent des tapis de brocart, et l'on…
Imaginary interviewIldico · 500 — ?
Nous la retrouvons quelque part sur la plaine pannonienne, dans les jours incertains qui suivent la mort d'Attila, alors que la cour hune se déchire déjà pour sa succession. Elle a accepté de nous…
Imaginary interviewFerdowsi · 940 — 1020
On raconte qu'il fallut, pour le trouver, traverser toute la ville de Tus jusqu'à une maison modeste au bassin discret, où un vieil homme aux mains tachées d'encre continuait de réciter ses vers à…
Imaginary interviewBibi Khanym · 1341 — 1408
Sous les tentes de soie dressées dans les jardins de Samarcande, à l'ombre des platanes du bagh royal, Bibi Khanym reçoit son visiteur entre deux audiences de la maison impériale. Au loin, les…
Imaginary interviewBabur · 1483 — 1530
Nous retrouvons Bâbur à Agra, dans les derniers mois de sa vie, assis dans l'un des jardins qu'il vient de faire tracer au bord de la Djumna, loin des melons de sa Ferghana natale. Autour de lui,…
Imaginary interviewAlisher Navoi · 1441 — 1501
L'entretien se tient dans le jardin d'une demeure de Hérat, à l'heure où les fontaines couvrent le bruit de la ville. Alisher Navoï, vizir et poète, reçoit entre deux audiences, un manuscrit encore…
Imaginary interviewAl-Zamakhshari · 1075 — 1144
Nous retrouvons Al-Zamakhshari à La Mecque, dans l'ombre de la Kaaba, où il a élu domicile depuis tant d'années qu'on ne l'appelle plus que Jār Allāh. Appuyé sur sa jambe de bois, un exemplaire…
Imaginary interviewAl-Tirmidhi · 0824 — 0892
On dit qu'il faut aller jusqu'à Bugh, tout près de Tirmidh, pour trouver le vieux maître. Il ne voit plus rien depuis des années, mais sa voix ne tremble pas quand il récite. Un visiteur s'assoit…
Imaginary interviewAl-Marghinani · 1123 — 1197
Nous retrouvons Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani dans sa demeure de brique crue près de la madrasa de Samarcande, un pupitre rahle chargé de feuillets à ses côtés, l'encre encore fraîche sur la dernière…
Imaginary interviewAl-Biruni · 973 — 1048
Nous sommes à Ghazni, dans les dernières années de la vie d'Al-Biruni, aux alentours de 1040. Le vieux savant nous reçoit dans sa cellule-bibliothèque du palais ghaznévide, entre astrolabes, rouleaux…
Imaginary interviewAhmad Yasawi · 1093 — 1166
À Yasi, sous les steppes du Turkestan, une voix nous parvient depuis l'ouverture étroite d'une cellule creusée à même la terre, près de la mosquée. Ahmad Yasawi, poète et maître soufi fondateur de la…
Imaginary interviewAhmad Shah Durrani · 1722 — 1772
Nous retrouvons Ahmad Shah Durrani dans la citadelle de sa Kandahar nouvelle, la ville qu'il fit bâtir de ses propres mains politiques, alors que les dernières années de son règne s'annoncent déjà.…
Imaginary interviewAbai Kunanbaev · 1845 — 1904
C'est à Jidebaï, dans les quartiers d'hiver de la famille Kounanbaïev, qu'on imagine cette rencontre — vers 1895, au creux d'une steppe silencieuse sous la neige. Abaï, la cinquantaine imposante et…
Imaginary interviewSiramori Diabaté · 1925 — 1989
Kéla, a dry-season evening in the late 1980s. In the mud-brick courtyard, under a mango tree, an old woman in a lustrous bazin boubou motions for you to sit. Around her, koras rest against the wall;…
Imaginary interviewSiné · 1928 — 2016
A Tuesday deadline, in the magnificent disorder of a Parisian newsroom: crushed cigarette butts, crumpled proofs, a smell of India ink and cold coffee. Siné, hair disheveled and with a throaty laugh,…
Imaginary interviewSinan · 1490 — 1588
Edirne, a late afternoon in 1575. In the cool shadow of the just-completed Selimiye, an old man of over eighty lifts his head toward its dome. The mimar başı Sinan agrees to speak of his life, from…
Imaginary interviewSima Qian · 144 av. J.-C. — 85 av. J.-C.
Chang'an, under the waning reign of Emperor Wu. In a low room strewn with bamboo slips, an old man with a marked face receives his visitor by the light of an oil lamp. He no longer wears the…
Imaginary interviewSim · 1926 — 2009
Late afternoon in a Parisian brasserie, not far from the television studios. Sim arrives late, a mischievous glint in his eye, a gravelly voice, a scarf carelessly knotted. He orders a coffee,…
Imaginary interviewShōshi · 988 — 1074
Kyoto, night falls on the Dairi and the oil lamps flicker behind the silk curtains. Beneath a painted screen where a cherry branch runs, an old woman in monastic robes receives us — Jōtōmon'in, once…
Imaginary interviewShiva
On the icy heights of Mount Kailāśa, where snow never melts and silence weighs like an offering, an ascetic covered in ashes slowly opens his eyes after centuries of stillness. A serpent glides…
Imaginary interviewShango
The storm roars atop thunderclouds, somewhere above Oyo. In his celestial palace of Orun, dressed in red and white, the orisha of thunder sets down his double axe for a moment to receive a voice from…
Imaginary interviewSetsuko Hara · 1920 — 2015
Kamakura, a late autumn afternoon. Behind a bamboo hedge, in a wooden house where silence seemed cultivated like a garden, a woman whom Japan thought lost agrees, for the time of an imaginary…
Imaginary interviewSeti I · 1322 av. J.-C. — 1278 av. J.-C.
We are received in the incense-scented twilight of the temple of Abydos, where seven chapels each open onto a god brought back from the darkness of oblivion. Pharaoh Seti I, between two offerings,…
Imaginary interviewSet
The sand wind rose at dusk, somewhere between Ombos and the red dunes bordering the Nile. Where the Black Land gives way to the Red Land, a figure with a strange head—long upright ears and a curved…
Imaginary interviewSennep · 1894 — 1982
Paris, an afternoon in the 1950s. In an apartment on the grand boulevards, one room serving as a studio, the drawing table groans under the morning newspapers. A sixty-year-old man, dark jacket and…
Imaginary interviewSempé
A Parisian studio where sheets covered in tiny silhouettes lie around, a bottle of India ink, and the murmur of a jazz record. Jean-Jacques Sempé, pencil set down but his eye still anxious, agrees to…
Imaginary interviewSei Shōnagon · 966 — 1025
One winter evening in Heian-kyō, behind the bamboo blinds of the imperial apartments, a brazier glows and incense still lingers in the room. Sei Shōnagon, fan half-open and a roll of paper beside…
Imaginary interviewSayyida al-Hurra · 1485 — 1561
Tetouan, an evening in the late 1530s. In a palace in the medina, water sings in the fountains of the patios and the scent of orange trees rises from the shaded courtyards. The governor receives us…
Imaginary interviewSarah Winnemucca · 1844 — 1891
Nevada, spring 1886. Under a Great Basin sky still speckled with snow, a woman in her forties welcomes us near Lovelock, within the earthen walls of her small school. She has put away the buckskin…
Imaginary interviewSarah Vaughan · 1924 — 1990
New York, an evening in 1982. In a dressing room still warm from the stage lights, a woman in a dark satin dress sets down a cup of cold coffee. Sarah Vaughan, 'The Divine One,' agrees to trace back…
Imaginary interviewSarah Bernhardt · 1844 — 1923
Paris, a winter evening in 1921. In her townhouse on the Boulevard Pereire, draped in dark velvet and peopled with animal shadows, the Divine receives, half-reclining on a fur-covered divan. She is…
Imaginary interviewSameera Moussa · 1917 — 1952
Cairo, early 1950s. In a laboratory at Cairo University where a Geiger counter crackles, a young physicist in a white coat barely looks up from her measurement notebooks. Samira Moussa, the first…
Imaginary interviewSalomé · 14 — 62
Machaerus, Herod's fortress perched on its peak above the Dead Sea. The feast has fallen silent, the torches still smoke, and a young woman with loosened veils stands near the table where a silver…
Imaginary interviewSalif Keita · 1949 — ?
Djoliba, on an island in the Niger River, at the end of a dry season. Salif Keïta receives in the courtyard of his studio, a white boubou draped over his shoulders, the kora of a young musician…
Imaginary interviewRyunosuke Akutagawa · 1892 — 1927
Tabata, an autumn evening. In a Tokyo study where books rise up to the paper walls, a thin man with small round glasses receives us in a kimono, a cup of tea cooling within reach. Ryūnosuke Akutagawa…
Imaginary interviewRomy Schneider · 1938 — 1982
Paris, a gray afternoon in the late 1970s. Romy Schneider receives in her apartment in the 7th arrondissement, a cup of strong coffee already cold before her, an annotated script open on the coffee…
Imaginary interviewRoland Topor
Late 1970s, somewhere in a Parisian apartment cluttered with papers, bottles of India ink, and barely started projects. Roland Topor receives us with a pen still in hand, a mischievous eye behind his…
Imaginary interviewRoland Moisan · 1907 — 1987
Paris, a closing Thursday, in a small studio near the editorial office of Le Canard enchaîné. On the slanted drawing board, a wash still drying depicts a general in coronation attire. Roland Moisan…
- Imaginary interview
Roger Blachon · 1941 — 2008
We pushed open the door of a sunlit studio, somewhere between the Rhône Valley and a drawing table cluttered with watercolor pans. Roger Blachon, pencil behind his ear and a smirk on his face, is…
Imaginary interviewRobert Lamoureux · 1920 — 2011
One autumn evening, backstage at a Parisian theater, the man packs away his hunting rifle — the one from the sketch, of course — into a worn velvet case. Robert Lamoureux wears an impeccable suit and…
Imaginary interviewRenata Tebaldi · 1922 — 2004
San Marino, winter 2004. In a villa surrounded by a silent garden, far from the bustle of great cities, Renata Tebaldi receives informally, a score open on the upright piano. Her voice speaks low —…
Imaginary interviewReiser · 1941 — 1983
Paris, an afternoon in the 1970s. In an apartment cluttered with papers, India ink is still drying on a drawing board placed askew. Reiser, shirt unbuttoned, cigarette dangling from his lips, pushes…
Imaginary interviewRaymond Devos · 1922 — 2006
Late afternoon at the estate of Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse, in the Chevreuse valley. Between a clarinet resting on an armchair and a pile of scribbled notebooks, the man in the dark suit receives us, a…
Imaginary interviewRamakrishna · 1836 — 1886
Late afternoon at Dakshineswar, along the Ganges. In the small room adjoining the Kālī temple, a thin man, dressed in a simple cotton dhoti, smiles between silences. He has just emerged from a sudden…
Imaginary interviewRajeshwari Chatterjee · 1922 — 2010
Bangalore, a monsoon afternoon. On the lush campus of the Indian Institute of Science, a woman in a sari welcomes us near a bench cluttered with waveguides and an old oscilloscope. Her voice is calm,…
Imaginary interviewRachel Wall · 1760 — 1789
Boston, a damp cell not far from the Common, early October 1789. Outside, the boards of a scaffold are already being nailed. A woman in her thirties, hands reddened by service and by salt, agrees to…
Imaginary interviewRabindranath Tagore · 1861 — 1941
Late afternoon at Santiniketan, under the mango trees whose shadows lengthen. An old man in a light draped robe, shawl on his shoulder, closes a Bengali notebook covered with corrections. He agrees…
Imaginary interviewQuang Trung · 1752 — 1792
Phú Xuân, summer 1792. In the former residence of the Nguyễn lords, now the imperial capital, a sharp-eyed man receives visitors between war councils. Barely three years since he assumed the title of…
Imaginary interviewProfesseur Choron · 1929 — 2005
Late 1970s, somewhere in a smoky Parisian bistro, not far from the editorial office. Georges Bernier — the Professeur Choron — orders a drink, cigar already wedged in the corner of his mouth, and…
Imaginary interviewPratibha Patil · 1934 — ?
New Delhi, a monsoon morning. In a quiet lounge of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, under the high ceilings designed by Lutyens, a woman in a saffron silk sari receives us, calm and precise. She recently left…
Imaginary interviewPierre Étaix · 1928 — 2016
Late afternoon in a Parisian apartment cluttered with sketchbooks and reels. Pierre Étaix greets us with a pencil behind his ear, between a bowler hat sitting on the upright piano and a poster he…
Imaginary interviewPierre Desproges · 1939 — 1988
Cramped dressing room at the Théâtre Fontaine, an evening in 1987. Between two wisps of cigarette smoke, the man with the cutting voice adjusts the collar of a dark shirt, a glass of Bordeaux resting…
Imaginary interviewPierre Dac · 1893 — 1975
London, one evening in 1943, in the hushed corridors of Bush House. Between two recordings for the BBC, a small man with a mischievous look and a neatly trimmed mustache sets his text down on a…
Imaginary interviewPiem · 1923 — 2020
A Sunday in the late 1970s, in a bright apartment in the Paris region cluttered with sheets of paper and markers. Piem, in a sober jacket with a mischievous smile, moves aside a drawing board still…
Imaginary interviewPhilippe Honoré · 1941 — 2015
One winter morning, on rue Nicolas-Appert, in the grey light of the 11th arrondissement. At his cluttered drawing table, surrounded by poetry collections and inkwells, a man with a fine line welcomes…
Imaginary interviewPhoebe · 50 — 100
There is no court where one meets a Titaness: only a cave on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, where the rock exhales a warm breath from the bowels of the Earth. Seated on a blackened bronze tripod, a…
Imaginary interviewPauli Murray · 1910 — 1985
Autumn 1978. In a small New Haven apartment cluttered with legal files and theology collections, a sixty-eight-year-old woman receives us near an old portable typewriter. A priest for a year, a…
Imaginary interviewPatsy Cline · 1932 — 1963
Nashville, an evening in the fall of 1962. In a dressing room at the Ryman Auditorium, smelling of warm dust and velvet, Patsy Cline removes her long gloves and sits near a mirror surrounded by…
Imaginary interviewPatricia Grace · 1937 — ?
Hongoeka Bay, late afternoon. The tide is receding behind the windows, and in the distance, you can hear the children from the marae heading home. Patricia Grace welcomes us into a house where…
Imaginary interviewPadmavati · 278 av. J.-C. — ?
Pataliputra, at the hour when the sun withdraws from the palace's irrigated gardens. In a room of the antahpura, draped with embroidered fabrics and perfumed with lotus flowers floating on water, a…
Imaginary interviewOum Kalthoum · 1898 — 1975
Cairo, a spring evening in the 1960s. In the hushed living room of her villa in Zamalek, the Star of the East receives us late, as is her habit, a steaming glass of mint tea on the low table. Her…
Imaginary interviewUthman ibn Affan · 574 — 656
Medina, under the declining sun of the month of Dhu al-Hijja. The third caliph receives us in the courtyard of his stone dwelling, not far from the Prophet's Mosque, a copy of the Qur'an placed…
Imaginary interviewOshun
We met her at dawn, on the banks of the Osun River, where the branches bend over the flowing water and the brass of the altars catches the first rays. Dressed in yellow, a golden calabash beside her,…
Imaginary interviewOctavia Butler · 1947 — 2006
Seattle, a winter morning in 2005. In an apartment with shelves sagging under notebooks and atlases, a tall woman pours us tea and sits by the gray window. She has just finished Fledgling and speaks…
Imaginary interviewNzinga Mbandi
Matamba, an evening in the dry season, near the end of her reign. Under the thatched roof of the great royal enclosure, the drums have just fallen silent, and an octogenarian queen, still upright,…
Imaginary interviewNur Jahan · 1577 — 1645
Lahore, an afternoon in the year 1643. In a rose sandstone room where the water of an interior fountain murmurs among the lamp niches, an elderly woman receives, draped in a dupatta of gold tarnished…
Imaginary interviewNizam al-Mulk · 1018 — 1092
We are in Isfahan, one autumn evening in the year 1091. In a reception hall near the palace of Malik Shah, amid stacked registers and the smell of ink from the diwan, an old man with a neat turban…
Imaginary interviewNichiren · 1222 — 1282
Autumn 1281, at Mount Minobu, in a wooden retreat surrounded by forests where the old master has withdrawn to teach. The rumor of the second typhoon that has just swallowed the Mongol fleet still…
Imaginary interviewNguyễn Trãi
We found him at Côn Sơn, among the pines and the murmur of a stream, an old man with his back bent over an inkstone still damp. The evening light fell upon the hills of the reconquered Đại Việt. He…
Imaginary interviewNguyễn Du · 1766 — 1820
Late autumn 1819, in the ancestral domain of Tiên Điền, in Hà Tĩnh. The old poet receives us under a bamboo awning, an inkstone still moist beside him. His voice is low, often suspended, like that of…
Imaginary interviewNgô Quyền · 897 — 944
We are at the beginning of the year 939, within the earthen ramparts of Cổ Loa, where the ancient spiral walls of the kingdom of Âu Lạc still hold the memory of the kings of old. Ngô Quyền has just…
Imaginary interviewNefertari · 1289 av. J.-C. — 1254 av. J.-C.
We are in the shaded apartments of the palace of Pi-Ramesses, in the eastern Nile Delta, where the air smells of freshly pleated linen and incense from the chapels. The Great Royal Wife receives us…
Imaginary interviewNeferneferuaten · 1400 av. J.-C. — 1400 av. J.-C.
The sun rises over Akhetaten, and the great roofless temple is already filling with light. In a room of the Hout-Aten palace, with walls painted with reeds and ducks in flight, a woman with a…
Imaginary interviewNatalia Ginzburg · 1916 — 1991
Rome, an autumn afternoon. In an apartment in the historic center where books rise to the ceiling and an old typewriter sleeps under a cover, a woman in dark clothes receives without ceremony,…
- Imaginary interview
Naré Maghann Konaté · 1135 — 1212
We are in Dakajalan, at the heart of the Mandinka country, in the great enclosure of round huts where the evening tam-tams resound. Mansa Naré Maghann Konaté receives us seated on a leopard skin, a…
Imaginary interviewNaomi Ōsaka · 1997 — ?
A quiet lounge in a Melbourne hotel, a few hours before practice. Naomi Ōsaka enters in a tracksuit, headphones around her neck, a game controller still sticking out of her bag. She speaks softly,…
Imaginary interviewNanny of the Maroons
Dawn mist over the gorges of the Rio Grande, more than nine hundred meters above the world of plantations. A horn echoes in the distance, long then short, and a silhouette draped in ochre patterns…
Imaginary interviewNancy Wake · 1912 — 2011
London, a grey afternoon in the early 2000s. Nancy Wake receives us in a hotel lounge, a glass of gin within reach, her eyes bright despite the decades. She has the easy laugh of those who have been…
Imaginary interviewNana Asma'u · 1793 — 1864
Sokoto, in the heart of the dry season, when the Harmattan wind fills the air with fine dust. In an inner courtyard of the mud-brick residence, seated on a braided mat, a woman in an…
Imaginary interviewNebuchadnezzar II · 641 av. J.-C. — 561 av. J.-C.
Babylon, a night in spring 573 BCE. Beneath the blue glazed bricks of the Ishtar Gate, the king has just performed the evening rites at the Esagila. He agrees to speak, his beard still fragrant with…
Imaginary interviewMose · 1300 av. J.-C. — ?
We imagined pushing open the door of a Parisian studio one afternoon in the late 1950s. Daylight falls on a drawing board cluttered with bristol boards, a half-empty bottle of India ink, and a bald…
Imaginary interviewMonica · 332 — 387
Ostia, port of Rome, late summer 387. In a whitewashed house overlooking the sea, a fifty-six-year-old woman, veiled in dark, sat near a window open to a small garden. A few days earlier, she had…
Imaginary interviewMomoko Kōchi · 1932 — 1998
Autumn 1995. In a quiet living room not far from the Tōhō Studios in Setagaya, a sixty-three-year-old woman receives a visitor, a steaming cup of tea in her hands. Forty-one years after lending her…
Imaginary interviewMistinguett · 1875 — 1956
Dressing room at the Casino de Paris, one evening in 1951, a few weeks after the Légion d'honneur. Amid hanging feather headdresses and jars of cream, Mistinguett agrees to tell her story, cigarette…
Imaginary interviewMessalina · 20 — 48
Rome, an evening in the year 48. Under the shade of the Horti Luculliani, those gardens she so coveted, the empress receives visitors at dusk, a cup of wine in hand. Her voice is calm, assured, a…
Imaginary interviewMeryl Streep · 1949 — ?
A late autumn afternoon, in a New York City apartment where the piano occupies the far end of the living room and scripts pile up, annotated to the margins. Meryl Streep receives without fuss, in…
Imaginary interviewMercedes Sosa · 1935 — 2009
Buenos Aires, a winter afternoon in a Palermo apartment cluttered with records and sheet music. On the coffee table, a gourd of maté cools beside a bombo legüero leaning against the wall. La Negra…
Imaginary interviewMazu · 960 — 987
On the island of Meizhou, facing the China Sea, incense still rises from the great bronze incense burner where fishermen place their prayers. It is there, between the mother shrine and the shore…
Imaginary interviewMaya Angelou · 1928 — 2014
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, an autumn morning. In a house where West African masks sit alongside an overflowing library, Maya Angelou receives us at her kitchen table, a yellow legal pad placed…
Imaginary interviewMaurice Henry · 1907 — 1984
A spring afternoon, in a sunlit studio north of Milan, where unfinished canvases sit alongside old yellowed newspapers. The man who receives us has a lively gaze and hands stained with India ink.…
Imaginary interviewMatsuo Bashō · 1644 — 1694
Fukagawa, an autumn evening, at the edge of the year 1691. The old poet receives us in his mud hut, at the foot of the banana tree that gave him his name, a steaming bowl of tea in his hands.…
Imaginary interviewMatilda of Tuscany · 1040 — 1115
January, somewhere on the rocky spur of the Apennines. The wind whistles against the walls of Canossa Castle, and in a low room heated by a meager fire, a woman in her sixties receives us, upright…
Imaginary interviewMary Shelley · 1797 — 1851
Chester Square, London, a misty Victorian afternoon. In a cluttered drawing room filled with manuscripts and portraits, a woman with grave eyes receives us near an oil lamp she has not extinguished…
Imaginary interviewMary Kenneth Keller · 1913 — 1985
Dubuque, Iowa, an afternoon in the late 1970s. In a small office at Clarke College adjoining the computer lab, Sister Mary Kenneth Keller receives us between classes. On her desk: a programming…
Imaginary interviewMary Golda Ross · 1908 — 2008
Los Altos, California, in the early 2000s. In a modest living room where a few scientific journals still lie on a coffee table, a petite woman over ninety receives visitors with measured politeness.…
Imaginary interviewMary Engle Pennington · 1872 — 1952
Philadelphia, a winter morning, sometime between 1919 and 1920. In a study cluttered with observation notebooks and thermometers lined up like soldiers, a woman in her fifties receives us, her lab…
Imaginary interviewMartha Graham · 1894 — 1991
New York, a winter morning in a bare-walled Manhattan studio, a rehearsal piano in the corner, the smell of waxed wood and old sweat. Martha Graham, small and straight as a blade, receives us sitting…
Imaginary interviewMarilyn Monroe · 1926 — 1962
Los Angeles, an afternoon in 1961. In a modest villa in Brentwood with still half-unpacked boxes, Marilyn Monroe receives without makeup, a dog-eared book resting on the armrest. She speaks softly,…
Imaginary interviewMarie Laveau · 1801 — 1881
New Orleans, rue Saint-Ann, at the hour when the heat of the Vieux Carré settles like a prayer. Behind the covered gallery, a woman in a madras tignon ushers us into a room where the smell of dried…
Imaginary interviewMarie of Champagne · 1145 — 1198
Troyes, a winter evening near the end of the 12th century. In the great hall of the comital palace, tapestries hold in the warmth of the embers and a vielle still echoes in the distance. The Countess…
Imaginary interviewMarie of Oignies · 1177 — 1213
On the banks of the Sambre, near the priory of Oignies, a stone cell barely larger than a tomb shelters a woman whose face is marked with tears. We are in the year 1213, a few months before her…
Imaginary interviewMarian Anderson · 1897 — 1993
Danbury, Connecticut, a late autumn afternoon. Marian Anderson receives us at Marianna Farm, in the large living room where the grand piano still holds the place of honor. Her voice, at rest, retains…
Imaginary interviewMaria Mitchell · 1818 — 1889
Autumn 1887, Vassar College Observatory in Poughkeepsie. The dome smells of cold metal and the varnish of star charts pinned to the walls. Maria Mitchell, sixty-nine years old, gray hair pulled back,…
Imaginary interviewMarguerite Porete · 1250 — 1310
Paris, winter 1309. In a stone cell of the dungeon where the inquisitor William of Paris has held her for months, a beguine from Hainaut receives a visitor with a lamp and a writing desk. She is…
Imaginary interviewMargherita Hack · 1922 — 2013
Trieste, a spring afternoon. In an apartment cluttered with books and journals where three cats doze on windowsills, an old lady with white hair welcomes us in slippers, a bicycle leaning against the…
Imaginary interviewMargaret Knight · 1838 — 1914
Framingham, Massachusetts, an autumn afternoon in 1913. In a rented room strewn with files, springs, and dog-eared notebooks, a seventy-five-year-old woman receives us without ceremony, her hands…
Imaginary interviewMargaret Bonds · 1913 — 1972
Autumn 1968. The late afternoon sun falls obliquely on the keyboard of a Steinway placed near a window in Los Angeles, where sheets of music paper blackened with corrections wait, pinned. Margaret…
Imaginary interviewManuela Sáenz · 1797 — 1856
Paita, on the dusty coast of Peru, a morning in 1850. In a low adobe house open to the Pacific winds, a woman with a firm gaze rolls cigars between her fingers, an old chest of letters at her feet.…
Imaginary interviewMaitreyi · 1000 av. J.-C. — 1000 av. J.-C.
At the edge of the kingdom of Videha, where thatched huts give way to the great trees of the Aranya, a woman sits on a mat of kusha grass, her gaze turned toward the domestic fire. She refused the…
Imaginary interviewMadame de Maintenon · 1635 — 1719
Late autumn 1718. In a modest room of the Maison royale de Saint-Louis, at Saint-Cyr, an old lady of eighty-three receives us, bundled up near a foot warmer of embers. Louis XIV has been dead for…
Imaginary interviewLý Thường Kiệt · 1019 — 1105
We met him in the imperial citadel of Thăng Long, not far from the Thái Hòa ward where he was born, at the hour when the guard drums mark the changing of the watch. The old general, draped in his…
Imaginary interviewLý Thái Tổ · 974 — 1028
Autumn 1027, in the Forbidden City of Thăng Long. The old sovereign receives under a wooden pavilion with glazed tiles, a pagoda bell echoing far off over the Red River plain. He is nearly fifty-four…
Imaginary interviewLuke Yuan
Long Island, a winter morning in 2003. In a suburban house near Brookhaven, an old man receives guests before a steaming teapot. Snow falls on the pines; a few miles away, the AGS ring sleeps under…
Imaginary interviewLucy Stone · 1818 — 1893
Boston, a winter morning in 1885. In the cramped offices of the Woman's Journal, amid piles of printer's proofs and stacks of letters, a sixty-seven-year-old woman sets down her pen. Her voice is…
Imaginary interviewLu Xun · 1881 — 1936
Shanghai, autumn 1936. In an apartment in the Hongkou district cluttered with books, stacked magazines, and prints drying against the wall, a thin man in a dark changshan coughs between cigarettes.…
Imaginary interviewLowitja O'Donoghue · 1932 — 2024
Adelaide, an Australian winter morning. Lowitja O'Donoghue receives us in a modest living room, her decorations displayed without ostentation on a shelf, a yellowed map of South Australia pinned near…
Imaginary interviewLorraine Hansberry · 1930 — 1965
Winter 1964. In a Greenwich Village apartment cluttered with stacked manuscripts and activist magazines, a thirty-four-year-old woman receives us between hospital stays. The typewriter is still warm;…
Imaginary interviewLoretta Lynn · 1932 — 2022
Nashville, an autumn afternoon. Loretta Lynn receives us in the living room of her Tennessee property, a cup of strong coffee in hand, her old guitar leaning against the armchair. Behind the sequined…
Imaginary interviewLois Weber · 1879 — 1939
Universal City studios, an afternoon in 1921. Between takes, Lois Weber sets her megaphone on a crate and sits on a folding chair, a typed script still covered in handwritten notes on her lap. The…
Imaginary interviewLoïe Fuller · 1862 — 1928
Paris, a winter evening in 1908, in a workshop in the neighborhood where meters of folded silk and the smell of warm gelatin from projectors linger. Loïe Fuller receives between two rehearsals, a…
Imaginary interviewLin Lanying · 1918 — 2003
Beijing, a gray morning in the late 1990s. In a narrow office at the Institute of Semiconductors, cluttered with reprints and boxes containing thin, shiny wafers, a small woman receives us without…
Imaginary interviewLillian Hellman · 1905 — 1984
Manhattan, an evening in the late 1970s. In an Upper East Side apartment where cigarette smoke and the smell of simmering gumbo hang in the air, Lillian Hellman receives us, a glass of bourbon within…
Imaginary interviewLi Ling · 1985 — ?
We met her in the hushed hall of a former training center in Beijing, where the chalk still hangs in the air like a dust of memory. Li Ling, born in 1985, a specialist on apparatus for China at the…
Imaginary interviewLi Bai · 701 — 762
Late summer night, somewhere on a boat moored along the Yangtze River. A jar of rice wine warms under the moon, a brush dries on the edge of the hull. The man who receives us has the gaze of one who…
Imaginary interviewLeontyne Price · 1927 — ?
Late winter, a New York apartment where annotated scores sit alongside RCA Red Seal record sleeves and stage photographs from the Met. Leontyne Price receives guests in a quietly elegant living room,…
Imaginary interviewLeonora Carrington · 1917 — 2011
Mexico City, Roma neighborhood, an afternoon in the late 2000s. In a low house where cats slip between unfinished canvases and bronze sculptures, Leonora Carrington receives, a cup of tea in hand,…
Imaginary interviewLê Thánh Tông · 1442 — 1497
Thăng Long, an evening at the end of the 15th century. In a palace room where the brushes of the Tao Đàn literary circle are still drying, a fifty-year-old emperor agrees to receive a visitor from a…
Imaginary interviewLê Lợi · 1384 — 1433
We are received in the citadel of Đông Kinh, two years after the last Ming junks sailed down the Red River toward the north. The man facing us still bears on his shoulder the birthmark that his court…
Imaginary interviewLê Hoàn · 941 — 1005
Hoa Lư, a morning in the dry season. Tucked between the limestone peaks that guard the capital of Đại Cồ Việt, the palace still echoes with the drums of the campaign's return. Emperor Lê Đại Hành…
Imaginary interviewLata Mangeshkar · 1929 — 2022
Mumbai, Peddar Road neighborhood, at the end of a monsoon afternoon. In an apartment of almost monastic simplicity, a woman in a white sari receives us, a cup of warm milk beside her and a silent…
Imaginary interviewLakshmi
The meeting takes place at the hour when dawn glides over the waters, somewhere between the palace of Vaikuntha and a freshly washed village threshold. Seated on a lotus that floats without getting…
Imaginary interviewLady Triệu
On the wooded slopes of Mount Tùng, a campfire crackles in the mist of Cửu Chân. A tall woman, dressed in an indigo tunic and golden-hued armor, dismounts from her elephant and sits near the embers.…
Imaginary interviewLady Montagu
Constantinople, a spring morning in 1718. On a terrace of the British embassy in Pera, overlooking the Bosphorus, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu receives us in a long embroidered robe in the Ottoman…
Imaginary interviewLạc Long Quân
On a shore of the estuary, where fresh water mingles with salt, the mist opens and reveals a silhouette draped in the shimmer of scales. He comes from Thủy phủ, the Water Realm, and returns among men…
Imaginary interviewKösem Sultan · 1589 — 1651
Night in the Topkapi harem, an oil lamp trembles on the Iznik tiles. A woman veiled in dark silk receives guests in her quarters, between two still-damp firmans. She is called the Valide Sultan; she…
Imaginary interviewKono Yasui · 1880 — 1971
Ochanomizu, an autumn morning in the late 1960s. In a modest office where the smell of paper and dyes has never entirely disappeared, a woman of nearly ninety arranges glass slides with the precision…
Imaginary interviewKōmyō · 1322 — 1380
We are in Kyoto, at dusk on a day in 1375. In a discreet hermitage away from the Imperial Palace, an old monk with a shaven head receives us; under the dark robe, one senses the former Emperor Kōmyō,…
Imaginary interviewKoken · 718 — 770
Nara, at dusk on a day in the Jingo-keiun era. In a room of the Heijō-kyō palace where incense still burns, Empress Shōtoku — whom the world first knew as Kōken — receives visitors by lamplight, a…
Imaginary interviewKiya · 1400 av. J.-C. — 1400 av. J.-C.
We met her at Akhetaten, in the cool shade of her solar chapel, at the hour when the rays of the Aten lengthen across the painted tiles of the Great Palace. She wears her wig of long Nubian curls and…
Imaginary interviewKenzaburō Ōe · 1935 — 2023
A late autumn afternoon, in a house in the Tokyo suburbs where books pile up to the ceiling and where, somewhere in the back, a score waits on a piano. Kenzaburō Ōe receives without a tie, round…
Imaginary interviewKatharine Burr Blodgett · 1898 — 1979
Schenectady, a winter morning in the late 1950s. In the General Electric research laboratory, a woman in a dark lab coat tilts a perfectly transparent sheet of glass toward the light, then picks up a…
Imaginary interviewKate Gleason · 1865 — 1933
Rochester, a winter morning in the early 1920s. The smell of cutting oil still lingers in the office overlooking the Gleason Works workshops, where milling machines and lathes turn. Kate Gleason, in…
Imaginary interviewKartini · 1879 — 1904
Jepara, the regent's residence, one evening during the rainy season around 1902. Behind the walls of the family compound, a twenty-three-year-old woman writes by the light of an oil lamp, surrounded…
Imaginary interviewHùng Vương
On the heights of Phong Châu, where the Red River splinters into glistening branches, an old sovereign receives visitors in the shade of a stilt house. He bears the title that eighteen generations…
Imaginary interviewHubertine Auclert · 1848 — 1914
Paris, a spring morning in 1909. In a modest apartment in the city center, where stacks of La Citoyenne sit next to bundles of tied petitions, a woman in a black dress receives us standing, a pen…
Imaginary interviewHou Yifan · 1994 — ?
A late winter afternoon, in a quiet office on the campus of Shenzhen University. The windows overlook the palm trees of southern China, and on the table, between two piles of student papers, a travel…
Imaginary interviewHokusai · 1760 — 1849
Autumn 1834. In a cluttered shop in the Honjo district of Edo, the old man sits on the floor, a brush between his fingers, sheets of washi piled up to his knees. He has just signed with a new…
Imaginary interviewHồ Xuân Hương · 1772 — 1822
One evening in the late 18th century, on the shores of West Lake, the water pavilion her first husband built for her floats in the mist. An oil lamp, an inkstone still damp, and a woman laughing…
Imaginary interviewHéloïse d'Argenteuil · 1101 — 1164
At the Paraclet, in this Champagne where winter bites the stone, the abbess receives us in a cell adjoining the scriptorium. Her pen barely set down, she sets aside an illuminated psalter and agrees…
Imaginary interviewHe Zehui · 1914 — 2011
Beijing, a winter morning, in an apartment where the shelves sag under physics journals and tea grows cold near a stack of reprints. He Zehui, small, dressed in a sweater worn to the thread, sits…
Imaginary interviewHazel Scott · 1920 — 1981
Paris, an afternoon in the late 1950s. In a Left Bank apartment where the smell of coffee still lingers, a woman in a long dress sits down at her piano, lights a cigarette, and waits for questions.…
Imaginary interviewHayao Miyazaki · 1941 — ?
Late afternoon in Koganei, in the western suburbs of Tokyo. Behind the glass windows of Studio Ghibli, the sky turns gray-blue; on the drawing table, hundreds of sheets await, corrected in red…
Imaginary interviewHattie McDaniel · 1893 — 1952
Los Angeles, an afternoon in 1949, in the living room of her house in Sugar Hill. Light falls on a piano where old blues sheet music lies scattered. Hattie McDaniel receives us with a cup in hand,…
Imaginary interviewHathor
The meeting takes place in the perfumed dimness of a naos, at the hour when incense still rises from the night's braziers. A priestess has just shaken the sistrum to awaken the goddess. Hathor, solar…
Imaginary interviewHatshepsut · 1506 av. J.-C. — 1457 av. J.-C.
Dawn breaks on the western bank at Thebes. Leaning against the cliff, the three-terraced temple of Deir el-Bahari lights up, and beneath its bright columns awaits she whom the monuments show as a man…
Imaginary interviewHaruki Murakami · 1949 — ?
Four in the morning, somewhere in Tokyo. An old jazz record plays softly, thousands of vinyls cover the walls, and a cup of coffee cools on the desk. Haruki Murakami, in his running tracksuit with a…
Imaginary interviewHarriet Tubman · 1820 — 1913
Auburn, New York, an autumn evening in 1911. In the small wooden house she opened for destitute old people, a tiny, stooped woman, shawl pulled tight around her shoulders, sits down by the stove. She…
Imaginary interviewHarriet Beecher Stowe · 1811 — 1896
Hartford, Connecticut, an autumn afternoon at Nook Farm. In the parlor of her Victorian house, a small woman with lively eyes sets down her pen and agrees to look back on a life spent writing between…
Imaginary interviewHanuman
On the heights of Kishkindha, where the Vanara rock still keeps the coolness of the caves, an old monkey crowned with gold sits facing the east, the gada resting across his knees. He murmurs…
Imaginary interviewHan Kang · 1970 — ?
It is six in the morning in Seoul. In a sparse apartment where notebooks pile up near a still-steaming teapot, Han Kang receives us in a low voice, as if afraid to wake the silence. Outside, the city…
Imaginary interviewHakuin · 1685 — 1768
Hara, a winter morning at the foot of Mount Fuji. In the temple Shōin-ji, where paper screens let the cold through, an old monk in patched robes sets down his brush still wet with ink. He has just…
Imaginary interviewHai Bà Trưng
We met her at Mê Linh, in the citadel of beaten earth that overlooks the delta rice paddies, in the same year her banner still flies over sixty-five cities. The river steams in the dawn; in the…
Imaginary interviewHa-Joon Chang · 1963 — ?
A late autumn afternoon in London, in a SOAS office cluttered with books and spices brought back from travels. Ha-Joon Chang greets us with a cup of coffee in hand, a mischievous glint in his eye,…
Imaginary interviewGuy Bedos · 1934 — 2020
Late afternoon in a Parisian apartment cluttered with clipped newspapers and old Olympia posters. Guy Bedos, voice a little husky and eyes sharp, pushes aside a pile of press clippings to make room.…
Imaginary interviewGuangxu · 1871 — 1908
Winter 1908, on Yingtai Island, at the heart of Zhongnanhai. A palace surrounded by icy water, bridges guarded day and night, and a thirty-seven-year-old man who receives, in a room where a…
Imaginary interviewGrace Kelly · 1929 — 1982
Monaco, an afternoon in the late 1970s. The princess receives us in a salon of the Prince's Palace overlooking the port, a string of pearls at her neck and gloves placed beside her on the armrest.…
Imaginary interviewGraça Machel · 1945 — ?
Maputo, late afternoon. In the bright offices of the Community Development Foundation, a colorful capulana rests on the back of a chair; on the table, humanitarian dispatches sit next to a cup of…
Imaginary interviewGotlib · 1934 — 2016
Late 2000s, somewhere in the Paris region. Marcel Gotlib receives us near his drawing table, pen and India ink within reach. On the first page lying around, a tiny ladybug seems to be already…
Imaginary interviewGloria Steinem · 1934 — ?
An apartment on the Upper East Side, in Manhattan, cluttered with books and files stacked up like a campaign office. An Olivetti typewriter sleeps near the window; on the table, piles of reader…
Imaginary interviewGisèle Halimi · 1927 — 2020
We met her one gray morning in her office in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, a stone's throw from the Palais de Justice where she pleaded for more than half a century. On her desk, thick files, a…
Imaginary interviewGertrude Bell · 1868 — 1926
Baghdad, an evening in 1925. In a courtyard house on the banks of the Tigris, Persian rugs and Mesopotamian sherds watch over a woman who redrew a map. Gertrude Bell receives us between two…
Imaginary interviewGeorgius · 1891 — 1970
Cramped dressing room at the Théâtre de l'Européen, one evening in 1938. Between sets, a man removes his makeup before a mirror ringed with bulbs, a bowler hat resting on a pile of sheet music.…
Imaginary interviewGeorges Wolinski
A Parisian workshop cluttered with drawing boards, the smell of fresh India ink on the drafting table. Georges Wolinski, his forelock disheveled and a wry smile on his lips, pushes aside a pile of…
Imaginary interviewGeorge Sudarshan · 1931 — 2018
Austin, Texas, a late-career afternoon. The office blackboard is still covered with half-erased equations, a notebook of calculations open near a cold cup of coffee. George Sudarshan greets us with…
Imaginary interviewGeneviève de Paris · 423 — 502
Paris, winter 502. In a bare cell at the foot of the left-bank hill, an old woman in a light veil keeps watch by candlelight. The city she protected from the scourge of the Huns sleeps outside; the…
Imaginary interviewGébé · 1929 — 2004
Autumn 1997, a Parisian newsroom cluttered with drawing boards and cold cups. Between deadlines, a man with a modest line and gentle irony agrees to put down his pencil. Georges Blondeaux, whom…
Imaginary interviewGalla Placidia · 386 — 450
Ravenna, in the marshes that protect the last capital of the West. The Augusta receives us in a room where marble reflects the lamplight and where, already, mosaics ripen under the hands of artisans.…
Imaginary interviewGalina Ulanova · 1910 — 1998
Moscow, a winter afternoon in the late 1970s. In a rehearsal room at the Bolshoi, where mirrors reflect the gray light from outside, a small woman watches two young dancers repeat a port de bras. She…
Imaginary interviewFunmilayo Ransome-Kuti · 1900 — 1978
Abeokuta, a dry-season afternoon, in the large house where activists from the villages and colonial law books cross paths. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, her gele impeccably tied, sets down her cup and…
Imaginary interviewFulvia · 76 av. J.-C. — 39 av. J.-C.
Sicyon, in the Peloponnese, summer of 40 BC. A woman exhausted by fever receives visitors under a portico battered by the sea wind. She has fled Perusia, waits in vain for news of Mark Antony, and…
Imaginary interviewFrigg
On the borders of Asgard, in the low mists of Fensalir, the queen of the Æsir spins a pale thread between her fingers. She does not look up right away. Then, in a voice that carries both authority…
Imaginary interviewFred · 1983 — ?
The Paris studio of Fred smells of India ink and cold coffee. On the large drawing table, unfinished pages sit alongside old worn geography maps. He pushes aside a pile of sketches, lights a…
Imaginary interviewFrançois Cavanna · 1923 — 2014
One afternoon in the late 2000s, somewhere between a Parisian apartment cluttered with books and the stubborn memory of the cobblestones of Nogent. François Cavanna receives without ceremony, his…
Imaginary interviewFrancis Blanche · 1921 — 1974
Late afternoon in the studios of Europe n°1, somewhere around the turn of the 1960s. Between two takes of "Signé Furax", Francis Blanche lights a cigarette, his eyes round and mischievous, and lets…
Imaginary interviewForough Farrokhzad · 1935 — 1967
Tehran, an autumn afternoon in the mid-1960s. In an apartment where notebooks of verse and the smell of black tea linger, Forough Farrokhzad receives, a cigarette in hand, having just returned from…
Imaginary interviewFlorence Nightingale · 1820 — 1910
London, winter 1897. In a room at 10 South Street, Mayfair, a seventy-seven-year-old woman receives visitors from her bed, surrounded by piles of reports and mortality maps. The light falls faintly…
Imaginary interviewFernand Raynaud · 1926 — 1973
Autumn 1972. Fernand Raynaud receives us between two rehearsals, hat set on a corner of the table, a fine car parked outside. The man who made all of France laugh speaks fast, stops short, starts…
Imaginary interviewFatima al-Fihri
Fez, late afternoon in the year 245 of the Hijra. The dust of the construction site still floats in the golden light as Fatima al-Fihri receives us in the shade of a freshly erected wall, a prayer…
Imaginary interviewFannie Lou Hamer · 1917 — 1977
Ruleville, Mississippi, a humid summer evening in the Delta. On the porch of a modest wooden house, a woman with a back worn by cotton fields motions us to sit. Her voice, even before the words,…
Imaginary interviewFan Bingbing · 1981 — ?
A hushed lounge in a Beijing hotel, nightfall. Far from the spotlights that made her legend and the cameras that once erased her, Fan Bingbing receives without makeup, a steaming pot of goji berry…
Imaginary interviewFaith Ringgold · 1930 — 2024
Englewood, New Jersey, a late winter afternoon. In a studio where painted quilts hang and spools of thread in every color lie about, Faith Ringgold, past ninety, welcomes us with a needle in her…
Imaginary interviewEvelyn Boyd Granville · 1924 — 2023
Los Angeles, an afternoon in the late 1980s. In a university office where the blackboard still bears the traces of a hastily erased demonstration, Evelyn Boyd Granville receives a visitor informally,…
Imaginary interviewEugenie Clark · 1922 — 2015
Sarasota, Florida, late afternoon. The Gulf water shimmers behind the windows of the laboratory she founded half a century ago. Eugenie Clark, her skin tanned by sixty years of salt and sun, lays her…
Imaginary interviewEthel Waters · 1896 — 1977
We found her in a velvet-draped dressing room, somewhere between two performances, a shawl over her shoulders and a Bible near the mirror. The most famous voice of Harlem agrees to trace the thread…
Imaginary interviewEshu
At the crossroads of two red laterite paths, somewhere between a Yoruba village and the great market, a small iron figurine stands on a mound of earth, glistening with palm oil. The wind stirs the…
- Imaginary interview
Erna Schneider Hoover · 1926 — ?
Late 1980s, somewhere in a house in Summit, New Jersey, a few miles from the Murray Hill labs. Coffee cools on the coffee table, a notepad still lies near the phone. Erna Schneider Hoover, retired…
Imaginary interviewEmpress Jingu
We met her at the Kashii Shrine in Fukuoka, where the sea breeze still carries the scent of salt and where, they say, the stones that held back her child are kept. Seated near the water, a jade bead…
Imaginary interviewEmma Goldman · 1869 — 1940
New York, one evening in the winter of 1917. In a cluttered apartment on the Lower East Side, between stacks of proofs from Mother Earth and the smell of pickled herring, a woman in round glasses…
Imaginary interviewEmily Warren Roebling · 1843 — 1903
Brooklyn Heights, an afternoon in 1901. From the window of a house on Columbia Heights, the silhouette of the bridge, whose every cable she knows, is still visible. Emily Warren Roebling welcomes us,…
Imaginary interviewElsie MacGill · 1905 — 1980
Toronto, late afternoon in the late 1970s. In the small consulting office where Elsie MacGill receives visitors, yellowed aircraft plans sit alongside freshly bound commission reports. She sets her…
Imaginary interviewElsa Triolet · 1896 — 1970
June 1968, at the Moulin de Villeneuve, in Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines. Elsa Triolet receives in the low room where the waterwheel still hums with its watery purr. On the table, a portable typewriter,…
Imaginary interviewEllen Gates Starr · 1859 — 1940
Chicago, a winter evening in the 1900s. In a Spartan room at Hull House, amid hand-bound books and student sketches pinned to the wall, a woman in gray dresses receives us. Outside, the chimneys of…
Imaginary interviewElla Baker · 1903 — 1986
Harlem, an evening in the late 1970s. In a modest apartment where the phone has been ringing all afternoon, Ella Baker receives us with the patience of someone who spent fifty years listening before…
Imaginary interviewElizabeth Taylor · 1932 — 2011
Bel Air, a late winter afternoon. California light falls on a living room cluttered with orchids, silver frames, and jewelry lying around like pebbles. Elizabeth Taylor receives, her voice husky and…
Imaginary interviewElizabeth Cady Stanton · 1815 — 1902
New York, an autumn morning in 1901. In an apartment cluttered with law books and theology, an old lady of eighty-six, nearly blind but with a sharp eye, receives us sitting by the window. Elizabeth…
Imaginary interviewEleonora Duse · 1858 — 1924
Autumn 1922. In a hotel room between two cities, a touring trunk half-open against the wall, La Duse receives without makeup, her gray hair simply pulled back. Her voice is low, almost a confidence,…
Imaginary interviewEleanor Roosevelt · 1884 — 1962
Val-Kill Cottage, an autumn afternoon in 1961. Far from the protocol of Washington, a seventy-six-year-old woman receives us in a house without servants, a cup of tea in hand, her glasses pushed up…
Imaginary interviewEileen Chang · 1920 — 1995
Los Angeles, an afternoon in the late 1980s. In a Westwood apartment with drawn curtains, amid piles of manuscripts and suitcases never quite unpacked, a small woman in a faded qipao agrees, for…
Imaginary interviewDurga
There is no earthly place to meet her who dwells on the inaccessible peaks of the Himalayas. Yet we approached her in thought, at the threshold of a perched temple where aarti lamps burn, at the hour…
Imaginary interviewDu Fu · 712 — 770
Autumn 766, in Kuizhou, upstream of the Three Gorges. The old poet, ill, receives his visitor under a bamboo awning from which the river's roar can be heard. He pours some murky wine into a chipped…
Imaginary interviewDrusilla · 16 — 38
One does not meet Drusilla in an atrium or on the steps of a circus, but in the half-light of the Temple of Venus, where her marble statue has kept watch since her consecration. She speaks softly,…
Imaginary interviewDorothy Day · 1897 — 1980
Late afternoon at 55 East Third Street, at Maryhouse, in the Lower East Side. An old woman in a dark dress, a shawl on her shoulders, heats water for tea while, behind the door, the line of the…
Imaginary interviewDorothy Dandridge · 1922 — 1965
Los Angeles, an evening in 1958. In a hotel lounge with drawn curtains, a woman in a silk sheath dress smokes slowly, between rehearsals. Dorothy Dandridge agrees to talk — about fame, the drained…
- Imaginary interview
Djibril Tamsir Niane · 1932 — 2021
Dakar, one dry-season afternoon. In his office buried under manuscripts and field notebooks, Djibril Tamsir Niane receives guests in the shade of a struggling fan. A griot's kora echoes in the…
Imaginary interviewĐinh Bộ Lĩnh · 924 — 979
We are in the rugged valley of Hoa Lư, between limestone cliffs and slow rivers, where the first emperor of the reunified country holds his stone court. The man who was once a herdboy receives us…
Imaginary interviewDihya · 668 — 703
We are on the edge of the year 700 of your Christian calendar, in a camp pitched on the slopes of the Aurès mountains. Fires crackle, horses snort in the cold of the gorges, and a woman in an indigo…
Imaginary interviewDiane Nash · 1938 — ?
One autumn evening, in the basement of a Nashville Baptist church where the smell of cold coffee still lingers, Diane Nash sits on a folding chair, back straight, hands flat on the table. Over…
Imaginary interviewDiana Nyad · 1949 — ?
Key West, a September morning. The salt has long dried on her skin, but Diana Nyad still has the look of someone who has just emerged from the ocean. Seated facing the strait that still separates her…
Imaginary interviewDawn Fraser · 1937 — ?
Sydney, an Australian winter morning. In a swimming club in Balmain, the smell of chlorine mingles with that of the harbour. A woman with a frank gaze, the one who won three consecutive Olympic…
Imaginary interviewDelilah · 1100 av. J.-C. — 1100 av. J.-C.
We found her where the story places her: in the Valley of Sorek, among the vineyards that give the region its name, at the hour when women return from the wells. She does not flee the question; she…
Imaginary interviewCopi · 1939 — 1987
Paris, early 1980s. In a small café on the Left Bank, a stone's throw from the theaters where he creates his plays, Copi lights a cigarette and sets his sketchbook on the zinc counter. The…
Imaginary interviewColuche · 1944 — 1986
Late afternoon in a dressing room cluttered with motorcycle jackets and cups of cold coffee, somewhere between a Europe 1 studio and a café-theatre. The man in the striped overalls slumps onto a…
Imaginary interviewClotilde · 474 — 545
Tours, a morning in the year 545. Near the tomb of Saint Martin, in the cold of the stones and the smell of wax from the candles, an old queen in a dark veil agrees to speak. Her voice is low, but…
Imaginary interviewClara Zetkin · 1857 — 1933
Stuttgart, a winter evening at the turn of the century. In a modest apartment in the working-class districts, the table is buried under piles of Die Gleichheit and bundles of letters barely dry. A…
Imaginary interviewClare of Assisi · 1194 — 1253
San Damiano, one morning in the year 1252. In the freezing parlor of the convent, a woman with a face hollowed by twenty-eight years of illness receives her visitor, seated on a simple straw mat. Her…
Imaginary interviewCi'an · 1837 — 1881
Late 1880, in the Zhongcui Palace of the Forbidden City. Behind a yellow silk curtain, a forty-three-year-old woman receives her visitor — a rare occurrence, for the Empress Dowager of the East never…
Imaginary interviewChristine Delphy · 1941 — ?
A modest apartment on the Left Bank, a table cluttered with offprints and bound issues of a journal with a clear title: Questions féministes. Christine Delphy receives us without ceremony, the…
Imaginary interviewChristina Rossetti · 1830 — 1894
Late December afternoon at 30 Torrington Square, Bloomsbury. The gaslight is low, a coal fire glows, and on the table an annotated Bible sits next to sheets covered in fine handwriting. Wrapped in a…
Imaginary interviewChing Shih · 1775 — 1844
Canton, a winter monsoon night, around 1840. In the back room of a gambling house where dice clatter against lacquered wood, a woman in her sixties has tea served without taking her eyes off the door…
Imaginary interviewChika Kuroda · 1884 — 1968
Tokyo, a winter afternoon in the late 1950s. In a study with sliding paper doors and tatami mats, Chika Kuroda receives a visitor calmly, a steaming cup of green tea beside a notebook covered in…
Imaginary interviewChen-Ning Yang
Autumn at Tsinghua University in Beijing. In a bright office where the wind rustles the foliage, a man in his eighties receives us, his voice calm, his eye still lively with the symmetries that have…
Imaginary interviewChaval · 1914 — 1968
Paris, a gray afternoon in 1966, on the sixth floor of a studio-apartment cluttered with drawing boards and ink bottles. Chaval, a long, stooped silhouette, pushes aside a pile of drawings to clear a…
Imaginary interviewCharb · 1967 — 2015
Rue Nicolas-Appert, in the eleventh arrondissement of Paris, a winter Tuesday morning. The newsroom smells of lukewarm coffee and ink, a light table hums in a corner. Charb puts away a felt-tip pen,…
Imaginary interviewChantal Akerman · 1950 — 2015
Brussels, a gray late-autumn afternoon. Chantal Akerman receives us in an apartment cluttered with books, videotapes, and 16 mm reels, a cigarette never far from her hand. Through the window, rain…
Imaginary interviewCatherine of Siena · 1347 — 1380
Rome, a winter evening in 1379. In a narrow room near Santa Maria sopra Minerva, a gaunt woman in a white habit and black mantle receives her visitor, her voice low but her gaze burning. Around her…
Imaginary interviewCatharine MacKinnon · 1946 — ?
Ann Arbor, a fall afternoon. In her office at the University of Michigan Law School, cluttered with annotated casebooks and legal briefs, Catharine MacKinnon receives without ceremony. Her gaze…
Imaginary interviewCami
We pushed open the door of a Parisian apartment cluttered with manuscripts, somewhere between two comic newspaper offices, in the early 1930s. The man who greets us has a mischievous eye and an…
Imaginary interviewCalamity Jane · 1852 — 1903
Deadwood, an evening in the late 1890s. In the smoky back room of a saloon in the Black Hills, a woman in a fringed leather jacket sets her glass of whiskey on the counter and agrees to talk. The oil…
Imaginary interviewCabu · 1938 — 2015
Late afternoon on Rue Nicolas-Appert, in the hubbub of a newsroom that smells of cold coffee and India ink. A man with a bowl cut and large round glasses barely looks up from his notebook, a pencil…
Imaginary interviewBùi Thị Xuân · 1752 — 1802
We are in Phú Xuân, at dusk on a day in 1802, in a courtyard where the smell of wet leather from elephant harnesses still mingles with that of gunpowder. A woman in a dented armor receives us, calm,…
Imaginary interviewBrigid of Kildare · 451 — 525
Kildare, sometime around the turn of the 6th century. The wind from the Curragh Plain whistles against the palisade of the monastic enclosure while, behind its hedge of branches, the sacred flame…
Imaginary interviewBrigitte Bardot · 1934 — 2025
Late afternoon at La Madrague, her low villa set at the water's edge in Saint-Tropez. The umbrella pines filter a golden light, dogs doze on the cool tiles and the smell of salt rises from the nearby…
Imaginary interviewBoudicca · 30 — 61
Night falls on the British camp, somewhere on the road leading west. Fires crackle, the wagons form a vast arc where women and children await dawn. In front of her large tent, a tall woman, her red…
Imaginary interviewBosc · 1924 — 1973
Late afternoon in a Parisian studio-apartment, somewhere around the turn of the sixties. On the tilted drawing table, barely dry boards pile up, an open inkwell, and a little man in a bicorne who…
Imaginary interviewBörte · 1161 — 1230
Under the great ger of white felt pitched in the Onon valley, Genghis Khan's principal khatun receives visitors at milking time. Her hands are calloused despite the metal ornaments, and the tall…
Imaginary interviewBong Joon-ho · 1969 — ?
Late afternoon in a café in the Yeonhui district of Seoul. Bong Joon-ho orders an Americano, places a sketch-covered notebook on the table, and apologizes for having his head still full of a shot he…
Imaginary interviewBlanche de Castille · 1188 — 1252
Autumn 1235. In a vaulted room of the Palais de la Cité, the Seine flows gray behind the narrow windows. The regent receives, straight under her widow's veil, her hands resting on a parchment roll…
Imaginary interviewBibha Chowdhuri · 1913 — 1991
Calcutta, a monsoon morning. In a bright room at the Bose Institute, a woman in a cotton sari looks up from a microscope where plates blackened by the sky lie. Bibha Chowdhuri agrees to tell a life…
Imaginary interviewBetty Friedan · 1921 — 2006
Manhattan, an evening in the late 1970s. Betty Friedan receives guests in her apartment, far from the suburban house she fled. On the table, an annotated manuscript, a full ashtray, and that voice…
Imaginary interviewBette Nesmith Graham · 1924 — 1980
Dallas, late afternoon in 1979. In an office that still smells of fresh paint, a woman in a neat suit places a small white bottle on the table, the same one she once filled by hand. She has just sold…
Imaginary interviewBathsheba · 1008 av. J.-C. — 936 av. J.-C.
We met her in the royal apartments of Jerusalem, at the hour when the heat subsides over the City of David. Bathsheba, now queen mother with a throne at the right hand of her son Solomon, has agreed…
Imaginary interviewKaran Johar · 1972 — ?
A monsoon afternoon in Mumbai, in the plush offices of Dharma Productions, between two editing screenings. Karan Johar receives guests in an impeccable suit, an annotated script on the coffee table.…
Imaginary interviewKali
The autumn crescent night covers the crematorium of Varanasi, and the funeral pyres cast a reddish light on the Ganges. There, amid the smoke and the scent of hibiscus flowers, a black presence with…
Imaginary interviewJunichiro Tanizaki · 1886 — 1965
Autumn 1958, in a wooden house in Atami where the garden light lingers behind paper partitions. Junichirō Tanizaki receives guests at a low table, an iron teapot before him, his voice measured, that…
Imaginary interviewJulian of Norwich · 1342 — 1500
Norwich, a grey Norfolk morning, around the year 1400. Behind the wall of St Julian's Church, a voice answers through the narrow window of a cell where a woman has been walled in for years. She has…
Imaginary interviewJulia Kristeva · 1941 — ?
Late afternoon in a Haussmann-style apartment in the 5th arrondissement, between bookshelves overflowing with volumes in four languages. Julia Kristeva receives us after a day shared between writing…
Imaginary interviewJulia Domna · 165 — 217
Antioch, spring 217. In the apartments that the Eastern court had prepared for the Augusta, a sick woman still receives visitors, surrounded by chests of correspondence and Greek scrolls. She reigned…
Imaginary interviewJudy Garland · 1922 — 1969
London, a winter evening in 1968, in a small rented apartment in Chelsea cluttered with suitcases never quite unpacked. Judy Garland, forty-six, lights a cigarette, sits by the window and smiles —…
Imaginary interviewJudith · 950 — ?
On the wind-beaten ridges of the Semien Mountains, where mist rises from the valleys before dawn, a queen reviews her warriors. They call her Esato, the Blazing One, and her name still makes monks…
Imaginary interviewJuana Azurduy
Sucre, a bare room swept by the cold wind of the high plateau. An old woman with calloused hands receives her visitor sitting near a cold hearth; her voice blends the Spanish of the Creoles with the…
Imaginary interviewJoni Mitchell · 1943 — ?
Late afternoon in a wooden house in Laurel Canyon, the smell of turpentine still lingering near an easel turned against the wall. A guitar lies flat on the couch, tuned in a way that sounds like no…
Imaginary interviewJoan Sutherland · 1926 — 2010
Les Avants, a late autumn morning. Alpine mist still clings to the fir trees when Dame Joan Sutherland opens the door of her Swiss house, a steaming cup of tea in hand. On the grand piano in the…
Imaginary interviewJoan Fontaine · 1917 — 2013
December in Carmel-by-the-Sea, in a wooden house facing the Pacific. Joan Fontaine, ninety-six years old, receives in a living room where, on a console table, a golden statuette still catches the…
Imaginary interviewJessye Norman · 1945 — 2019
Autumn 2015, a quiet drawing-room in Dutchess County, New York State. The light falls on a grand piano covered in scores annotated in four languages. Jessye Norman, majestic silhouette wrapped in a…
Imaginary interviewJean Yanne · 1933 — 2003
A cluttered garage in the suburbs, somewhere between Les Lilas and Morsang-sur-Orge. Under the open hood of an old traction avant, a man with a casual demeanor wipes his hands on a rag and raises a…
Imaginary interviewJean Effel · 1908 — 1982
Paris, a gray afternoon in the late 1970s. In a studio-apartment cluttered with boards, bottles of India ink, and stacked collections, a man with a mischievous smile sets down his pen. Jean Effel,…
Imaginary interviewJean Bartik · 1924 — 2011
Poughkeepsie, an autumn afternoon. In a living room where yellowed prints of a thirty-ton machine still linger, a woman in her eighties welcomes us with the lilting accent of rural Missouri. She…
Imaginary interviewJawaharlal Nehru · 1889 — 1964
New Delhi, a morning in the late 1950s. In the garden of Teen Murti Bhavan, among the rose bushes he tends himself, the man in the white sherwani agrees to set aside his correspondence and remember…
Imaginary interviewJane Goodall · 1934 — 2025
We met her in a simple room, binoculars resting on a stack of dog-eared notebooks, a map of Gombe forest pinned to the wall. In her nineties, her voice remains low, patient, as if attuned to the…
Imaginary interviewJacques Faizant · 1918 — 2006
Autumn 2005, a Parisian apartment a stone's throw from the old newsrooms. On the drawing board, a pen and a bottle of India ink await tomorrow's sketch. Jacques Faizant, soft-spoken with a…
Imaginary interviewIsabella Bird · 1831 — 1904
Edinburgh, a misty afternoon, somewhere around the turn of the century. Isabella Bird receives us in her Scottish drawing room, a crate of photographic plates still closed near the door, as if a new…
Imaginary interviewIna Ray Hutton · 1916 — 1984
Backstage of a ballroom, somewhere between two cities, during the lull when the orchestra is packing up its stands. Ina Ray Hutton has just left the stage, a sequined dress still hanging on a rack,…
Imaginary interviewImtiaz Ali · 1971 — ?
One monsoon night in Mumbai, in the offices of Window Seat Films, among piles of handwritten notebooks and a playlist playing on loop. Imtiaz Ali receives late, as always — he says his ideas only…
Imaginary interviewImhotep · 2800 av. J.-C. — 2700 av. J.-C.
The sun declines over the necropolis of Saqqarah, and the shadow of the Step Pyramid lengthens across the deserted courtyards. Within the white stone enclosure that he himself raised, a man with a…
Imaginary interviewIda B. Wells · 1862 — 1931
Chicago, a winter evening in the 1920s, in the Bronzeville neighborhood. Ida B. Wells receives us in her living room, a stack of newspaper clippings within reach and her investigator's notebook never…
Imaginary interviewIbn Taymiyya · 1263 — 1328
Damascus, the year 1326. In a cell of the citadel, a man in a worn turban lifts his eyes from a wall he is covering with verses traced in charcoal, for lack of ink. His voice is calm, almost joyful,…
Imaginary interviewBessie Coleman · 1892 — 1926
Chicago, an autumn evening in 1925. In a boarding house on the South Side, Bessie Coleman has just returned from a tour, her aviator goggles still lying on the table next to a crumpled aeronautical…
Imaginary interviewBerthe de Bourgogne · 964 — 1010
Palace of the Île de la Cité, somewhere between two offices, the year 1000 barely past. A lady stands by a narrow window, a closed psalter in her hands, her veil still marked by the crease of Matins.…
Imaginary interviewBertha von Suttner · 1843 — 1914
Vienna, winter 1913. In a cozy drawing room of Harmannsdorf Castle, an old lady with white hair pinned up in a bun receives us near a desk cluttered with proofs and letters. At seventy, the woman…
Imaginary interviewBastet
The naos has just opened in the perfumed dimness of the great temple of Bubastis. A gray cat passes between the columns while in the distance rises the tinkling of a sistrum. She is there, seated,…
Imaginary interviewBartolina Sisa · 1750 — 1782
On the ridges of Pampahasi, above besieged La Paz, the wind of the Altiplano whips the mantas. A woman in a pollera receives us near a campfire, a chuspa of coca leaves at her belt, her eyes fixed on…
Imaginary interviewBanana Yoshimoto · 1964 — ?
It is almost midnight in Tokyo, the hour when the city falls silent and convenience stores draw halos in the empty streets. Banana Yoshimoto receives us in her apartment, a steaming cup of tea placed…
Imaginary interviewBaldr
In the hall of Breiðablik, where no lie crosses the threshold, a golden light bathes the silver walls. Baldr, the gentlest of the Æsir, agrees to speak of his already-written fate — that of a god…
Imaginary interviewAyumi Hamasaki · 1978 — ?
Tokyo, a quiet rehearsal studio in Shibuya, a few hours before a recording session. On the coffee table: a worn lyric notebook and a hearing aid placed next to a water bottle. Ayumi Hamasaki,…
Imaginary interviewAyn Rand · 1905 — 1982
New York, winter 1979. In a Manhattan apartment with walls lined with bookshelves, a dark-eyed woman receives us, wearing a navy suit and a dollar sign brooch on her lapel. On the coffee table, a…
Imaginary interviewAudrey Hepburn · 1929 — 1993
Tolochenaz, canton of Vaud, a late summer afternoon. In the garden of “La Paisible,” among the rosebushes and the smell of cooling bread, Audrey Hepburn welcomes us in cigarette pants and ballet…
Imaginary interviewAudre Lorde · 1934 — 1992
Late afternoon in Staten Island, in an apartment where books spill off the shelves and West African masks watch over the typewriter. Audre Lorde greets us, cup in hand, voice deep, eyes sharp.…
Imaginary interviewÂu Cơ · 2825 — 2520
They say that at the foot of the Phong Châu mountains, where mist clings to the peaks like a fairy's breath, a woman still watches. We met her at the entrance to a cave, dressed in white, as the wind…
Imaginary interviewAshurbanipal · 684 av. J.-C. — 630 av. J.-C.
Nineveh, in the North Palace, at the hour when torches make the winged bulls tremble on the walls. The king of Assyria receives near a low table covered with clay tablets, a stylus still within…
Imaginary interviewAspasia · 469 av. J.-C. — 399 av. J.-C.
Evening falls on Athens. In Pericles' house, by the peristyle where an oil lamp burns, a woman unrolls a volumen on her lap. She comes from Miletus, said to be an advisor to the powerful and a master…
Imaginary interviewAsima Chatterjee · 1917 — 2006
Calcutta, a monsoon afternoon. In a university laboratory where the smells of plant extracts linger, a woman in a cotton sari tidies her test tubes before receiving us. Asima Chatterjee agrees to…
Imaginary interviewAshoka · 303 av. J.-C. — 231 av. J.-C.
Under a canopy of unbleached cotton, in a pavilion of the palace of Pataliputra, the emperor receives visitors at the hour when the Ganges turns ochre. A polished sandstone pillar waits nearby, ready…
Imaginary interviewArundhati Roy · 1961 — ?
A monsoon afternoon in New Delhi, in an apartment overflowing with books, folded newspapers, and handwritten manuscripts. Masala tea steams on the coffee table. Arundhati Roy sits cross-legged, a…
Imaginary interviewArlette · 1010 — 1050
Falaise, sometime in the mid-11th century. Beneath the stone keep that dominates the town, a woman with hands still marked by tan receives her visitor near the fire. She is said to be a tanner's…
Imaginary interviewAriel Sharon · 1928 — 2014
Late afternoon at the Sycamore Farm, in the heart of the Negev. The old general receives in the warm dust of the desert, amid the smell of cattle and the distant rumble of his wars. He speaks low,…
Imaginary interviewAretha Franklin · 1942 — 2018
Detroit, a late winter afternoon. In the living room of a large house in Bloomfield Hills, an upright piano occupies the back wall, lid raised. Aretha Franklin receives us with a cup of black coffee…
Imaginary interviewAnousheh Ansari · 1966 — ?
A quiet lounge in a Dallas hotel, late afternoon. Anousheh Ansari places a small folded Iranian flag on the table — the very one that accompanied her into orbit. Beyond the window, the Texas sky…
Imaginary interviewAnwar Sadat · 1918 — 1981
Cairo, an evening in the late 1970s. In a presidential residence where the scent of pipe tobacco still lingers, Anwar Sadat receives, a galabeya thrown over his shoulders and his uniform put away for…
Imaginary interviewAnnie Smith Peck · 1850 — 1935
New York, winter 1932. Annie Smith Peck, eighty-two years old, receives in a modest furnished apartment cluttered with Andean maps and yellowed newspaper clippings. On the table, an old altimetric…
Imaginary interviewAnnie Oakley · 1860 — 1926
Autumn 1922. On the porch of a wooden house in Darke County, Ohio, a white-haired woman oils a gun barrel as others darn socks. She has put away the Wild West Show posters, but not her guns. She…
Imaginary interviewAnne Thérèse de Marguenat de Courcelles, marquise de Lambert
It is a Tuesday evening in the autumn of 1728, at the Hôtel de Nevers, rue de Richelieu. The candles still smoke in the chandeliers of the great hall that the last academicians have just left. The…
Imaginary interviewAnne Sexton · 1928 — 1974
Weston, Massachusetts, an afternoon in 1974. Cigarette smoke rises above the typewriter, in a suburban house where the too-green garden clashes with the blackened sheets of revisions. Anne Sexton, a…
Imaginary interviewAnne Royall · 1769 — 1854
Washington, a gray morning in 1849. In a room cluttered with papers, printing type, and old yellowed issues, a woman past eighty receives us unceremoniously, her pen already dipped. Anne Royall,…
Imaginary interviewAnna Pavlova · 1881 — 1931
The Hague, a winter evening in 1930. In a hotel room where a leather-banded trunk already awaits, Anna Pavlova receives us between trains, a shawl over her shoulders and her gaze still inhabited by…
Imaginary interviewAnna May Wong · 1904 — 1961
Santa Monica, an afternoon in the late 1950s. In a bright house open to the Pacific, Anna May Wong receives casually, a steaming cup of tea in hand, a dark silk qipao draped over her shoulders. The…
Imaginary interviewAnna Mani · 1918 — 2001
Thiruvananthapuram, an afternoon in 2000. In a living room overflowing with books and radiation maps, a small woman in an ecru cotton sari receives us, a pyranometer sitting on the table like a…
Imaginary interviewAnn Putnam · 1679 — 1716
Salem Village, a gray afternoon in 1706. In the small house where she raises her younger siblings, a twenty-seven-year-old woman receives us near the hearth, the family Bible open on her lap.…
Imaginary interviewAnita Borg · 1949 — 2003
Palo Alto, a spring morning in the late 1990s. In a bright office at Xerox PARC, a Unix workstation still hums, the screen covered with messages from distant time zones. Anita Borg sets down her cup,…
Imaginary interviewAnish Kapoor · 1954 — ?
You have to push a heavy door of an old warehouse in south London to enter his studio: everywhere models, polished metal discs, puddles of dried red pigment on the floor. Anish Kapoor sits on a stool…
Imaginary interviewAnggun · 1974 — ?
Late afternoon in a Parisian apartment where wall batiks sit alongside a contemporary sofa. Anggun has just come back from a studio session, a scarf with Javanese patterns over her shoulders. She…
Imaginary interviewAngela of Foligno · 1248 — 1309
Foligno, in Umbria, at the turn of the 14th century. In a bare house where only a crucifix adorns the wall, a woman in a grey woolen habit receives her visitor after a long vigil. Brother Arnold, her…
Imaginary interviewAngela Davis · 1944 — ?
A late summer afternoon in Oakland, in a room where bookshelves sag under the weight of Marx's bindings and collections of African American poetry. Angela Davis receives us without ceremony, a cup of…
Imaginary interviewAng Lee · 1954 — ?
One winter morning, in a New York editing room where coffee grows cold beside a pile of annotated storyboards. Ang Lee speaks softly, with long silences, as if searching for each shot before letting…
Imaginary interviewAndrea Dworkin · 1946 — 2005
New York, an afternoon in the late 1990s. Andrea Dworkin receives in an apartment cluttered with files, scratched manuscripts, and stacks of books where Nietzsche sits next to police reports. Dressed…
Imaginary interviewAnandamayi Ma · 1896 — 1982
Winter dawn at Kankhal, on a bank of the Ganges veiled in mist. Seated on a simple mat, a white sari falling over her shoulders, she whom they call the Joy-Permeated Mother answers between two songs,…
Imaginary interviewAn Lushan · 703 — 757
Under the campaign tent where the smell of leather and mutton fat lingers, the master of Fanyang receives us, his enormous belly propped on silk cushions. Outside, steppe horses trample the frozen…
Imaginary interviewAn Dương Vương · 250 av. J.-C. — 206 av. J.-C.
Twilight falls over the concentric ramparts of Cổ Loa, and the frogs are already singing in the moats. An old king receives us at the foot of his shooting platform, a crossbow resting on his knees,…
Imaginary interviewAminata Sow Fall · 1941 — ?
Late afternoon in Dakar, in a house in the Médina where an inner courtyard tempers the heat. Aminata Sow Fall receives between two piles of manuscripts, a glass of ataya within reach. The…
Imaginary interviewAmenhotep III · 1399 av. J.-C. — 1350 av. J.-C.
West bank of Thebes, at the hour when the sun dips behind the Libyan hills. Pharaoh Amenhotep III receives us in a hall of Malkata palace, barefoot on a floor painted the color of Nile water.…
Imaginary interviewAmartya Sen · 1933 — ?
Late afternoon at Trinity College, Cambridge, where the man receives in an office lined with books and offprints, a cup of tea cooling near the window. The voice is soft, almost hesitant, but the…
Imaginary interviewAlphonse Allais · 1854 — 1905
It is nearly midnight on the butte, and pipe smoke blurs the cabaret lamps. Seated at a table with a cloudy glass, the man with mocking eyes agrees to answer between bursts of laughter from the room.…
Imaginary interviewAli ibn Abi Talib · 599 — 661
Kufa, a night in spring 661. Under the palms of the mud-brick mosque, a man in a simple turban receives, between two prayers, the one who questions him. His voice is low, his speech measured like…
Imaginary interviewAlhazen · 965 — 1039
Fatimid Cairo, around 1030. In a house with an inner courtyard where a fountain murmurs, an old man receives his visitor near a room with closed shutters, pierced with a single small hole through…
Imaginary interviewAlbert Dubout · 1905 — 1976
In his studio in Saint-Aunès, near Montpellier, the light of the South falls obliquely on a table cluttered with pens and inkwells. A fat round cat dozes on a pile of barely dry drawing boards.…
Imaginary interviewAl-Hakim bi-Amr Allah · 985 — 1021
Cairo, a moonless night, somewhere between the alleyways of al-Qahira and the barren slopes of the Muqattam. A man in a white linen robe advances on a gray donkey, preceded by a lantern that trembles…
Imaginary interviewAl-Ghazali · 1056 — 1111
We are in Tus, in Khorasan, in this year 1110. An old man in a coarse woolen cloak receives us in a bare room where only an oil lamp burns; on the rug, a reed pen and a few folios. Al-Ghazali, who…
Imaginary interviewAl-Farabi · 870 — 951
Damascus, the final years of the reign of gardens and streams. In a shaded courtyard where a canal murmurs, an old man in a woolen robe rests an oud on his knees. They call him the Second Master; he…
Imaginary interviewAkira Kurosawa · 1910 — 1998
Setagaya, Tokyo. In a room at Toho studios cluttered with annotated scripts and still-damp watercolor notebooks, a tall man pushes back his wide-brimmed cap and removes his tinted glasses. He pours…
Imaginary interviewAkhenaten · 1400 av. J.-C. — 1335 av. J.-C.
On the terrace of a mudbrick palace swept by light, at Akhetaten, the pharaoh receives without a crown, at the hour when the disk rises above the cliffs. The rays strike the open-air altars, and he,…
Imaginary interviewAishwarya Rai · 1973 — ?
Late afternoon in Juhu, by the sea, in the vast Bachchan apartment where the monsoon drums against the bay windows. She welcomes us without makeup, a shawl thrown over her shoulders, between two…
Imaginary interviewAi Weiwei · 1957 — ?
Berlin, a gray studio morning. Ai Weiwei welcomes us surrounded by his cats, a camera near the teapot, his phone screen permanently on. Gray beard, calm voice, he speaks of China as a country he…
Imaginary interviewAhmed Ben Bella · 1916 — 2012
Algiers, a morning in 1964. The president receives in a sober room of the Palace of the People, far from the pomp of chancelleries. Mint tea steams on a copper tray, a burnous is thrown over the back…
Imaginary interviewAgnez Mo · 1986 — ?
Imaginary meeting in Los Angeles, in a studio where sheets of lyrics scribbled in English still lie around and, pinned to the wall, an old poster of a concert at Istora Senayan. Between two…
Imaginary interviewAgatha Christie · 1890 — 1976
Autumn 1954. The queen of crime receives us at Greenway House, her home in Devon, in a sitting room that smells of tea and old paper, while the River Dart sparkles below. A porcelain cup steams near…
Imaginary interviewAdelaide Hall · 1901 — 1993
London, an afternoon in the late 1980s. In the hushed living room of a brick house, a small woman with bright eyes pours tea, a steaming cup beside her like a stage talisman. At over eighty, Adelaide…
Imaginary interviewAda Yonath · 1939 — ?
Rehovot, the Weizmann Institute campus, a spring morning. In an office cluttered with molecular models and diffraction pattern photographs, a seventy-year-old woman welcomes us with steaming tea.…
Imaginary interviewAbra · 1988 — ?
Manila, late night. The heat doesn't let up, and from a small home studio in Metro Manila, the city continues to rumble through the window — jeepney horns, neon lights, the echo of internet cafés…
Imaginary interviewAbu Nuwas · 756 — 814
Baghdad, a warm night on the banks of the Tigris. The tavern lamps tremble on the water, and in a garden where the smell of spilled wine still lingers, an aging man sets down a cup to receive us. Abu…
Imaginary interviewAbhishek Bachchan · 1976 — ?
Juhu, Mumbai, late evening. The light is fading over the gardens of the Bachchan family home as Abhishek receives us, still a little marked by a long shooting session. He speaks softly, with that…
Imaginary interviewAbbas Kiarostami · 1940 — 2016
Tehran, at dawn, in an old Peugeot parked overlooking the hills. Abbas Kiarostami lowers his tinted glasses for a moment to watch the slanting light rise on the snow. He agrees to talk, engine off,…
Imaginary interviewA. Philip Randolph · 1889 — 1979
Late 1963, in a cramped Harlem office with walls papered in old newspapers and membership lists. A. Philip Randolph, black jacket buttoned to the collar despite the late hour, receives us between…
Imaginary interviewVictor Hugo · 1802 — 1885
June 1883. In the drawing-room of the house on Avenue d'Eylau, the shutters are half-open to the noise of Paris. The old man with the white beard receives visitors, upright in his armchair, and his…
Imaginary interviewStendhal · 1783 — 1842
Civitavecchia, an evening in 1836. The French consul receives in an office cluttered with crossed-out manuscripts, the window open onto the port and the smell of salt. Henri Beyle, whom they call…
Imaginary interviewSrinivasa Ramanujan · 1887 — 1920
Cambridge, a gray winter afternoon in 1918. In a room at Trinity College where the cold seeps in despite the fire, a slight man, wrapped in a shawl over his English jacket, pushes aside a notebook…
Imaginary interviewTheodosius · 583 — 602
Constantinople, under the reign of the Byzantine sun. In a hall of the Sacred Palace, where the distant sound of masons on the ramparts can be heard, a still-young emperor receives us, surrounded by…
Imaginary interviewThomas Hobbes · 1588 — 1679
Hardwick Hall, an autumn evening in 1675. The old philosopher receives us in the Cavendish library, a wool blanket on his knees, his eye still sharp at eighty-seven. Outside, Derbyshire sinks into…
Imaginary interviewVincent van Gogh · 1853 — 1890
Arles, autumn 1888. The yellow house smells of linseed oil and turpentine; barely dry canvases line the walls, yellow upon yellow. Vincent van Gogh, his gaze feverish under a straw hat, agrees to set…
Imaginary interviewThéophile Gautier · 1811 — 1872
October 1865. The Parisian salon smells of wax and cold tobacco; on the walls, Italian engravings sit alongside a drawing of a mummy brought back from the Orient. Théophile Gautier, waistcoat…
Imaginary interviewSocrates · 469 av. J.-C. — 398 av. J.-C.
Athens, a morning in spring 399 BCE. The man receives us barefoot under the portico of the agora, where merchants and young men still linger. His trial has just begun; yet he speaks unhurriedly, as…
Imaginary interviewSor Juana Inés de la Cruz · 1651 — 1695
Mexico City, summer 1690. In a cell of the convent of San Jerónimo where four thousand volumes pile up, the air smells of ink, wax, and cold chocolate. A nun in a white veil sets down her quill to…
Imaginary interviewVictor Schoelcher · 1804 — 1893
Paris, winter 1890. In an apartment cluttered with books and maps of the colonies, an old man with white whiskers receives visitors near his window. At eighty-six, Victor Schœlcher still speaks of…
Imaginary interviewThales · 624 av. J.-C. — 545 av. J.-C.
The port of Miletus smells of salt and the wood of merchant ships. Under a portico of light stone, an old man in a gray himation traces figures in the dust with his finger, without lifting his eyes…
Imaginary interviewSofia Kovalevskaya · 1850 — 1891
Stockholm, winter 1889. Snow falls on the roofs of the Royal University, and in a cluttered office where the stove purrs, a thirty-nine-year-old woman sets down her pen. Sofia Kovalevskaya, the first…
Imaginary interviewVercingetorix · 79 av. J.-C. — 45 av. J.-C.
On the oppidum of Alesia, as the Roman fires encircle the hill with a second wall, the Arverni chieftain agrees to speak. He has laid his sword on a boar skin, his golden torc catches the last light.…
Imaginary interviewNikola Tesla · 1856 — 1943
Winter 1942. On the thirty-third floor of the New Yorker Hotel, a modest room numbered 3327, where an old man in a dark suit feeds pigeons on the windowsill. At eighty-six, Nikola Tesla agrees to…
Imaginary interviewSimone de Beauvoir · 1908 — 1986
Saint-Germain-des-Prés, a gray morning in 1965. Upstairs at the Café de Flore, at the corner table that was long her office, Simone de Beauvoir stubs out a half-smoked cigarette and closes a notebook…
Imaginary interviewPaul Verlaine · 1844 — 1896
Winter 1895, a smoky café in the Latin Quarter, at the hour when gas lamps yellow the smoke. Before a half-empty glass of absinthe, a balding man with the weary look of a faun agrees to speak — his…
Imaginary interviewPandora
On the slopes of Mount Olympus, where the gods shaped her from water and earth, a young woman adorned in gold agrees to revisit the first day of the world as she lived it. She speaks slowly, as one…
Imaginary interviewThomas Aquinas · 1225 — 1274
March 1272, the scriptorium of the Dominican convent in Paris smells of fresh ink and stretched parchment. A tall, slow-speaking friar waves away two secretaries waiting for his dictation. He…
Imaginary interviewRobert Schuman · 1886 — 1963
Scy-Chazelles, a morning in the autumn of 1962. In the small grey stone house where he has retired, Robert Schuman receives between his library cluttered with books in three languages and the window…
Imaginary interviewGiuseppe Verdi · 1813 — 1901
October, at the Villa Verdi in Sant'Agata. The master returns from the stables, his boots still heavy with the soil of Piacenza, and settles near a piano where a scored-over score lies. Outside, the…
Imaginary interviewRadia Perlman · 1951 — ?
Somewhere in a Silicon Valley office, late 2000s, a whiteboard still covered with half-erased graphs. Radia Perlman, coffee in hand, pushes aside a stack of algorithm drafts to sit down. She talks…
Imaginary interviewCoco Chanel · 1883 — 1971
Winter 1969. On the first floor of the Ritz hotel, Place Vendôme, an old lady receives us in a cloud of smoke and Coromandel screens. She never quite sits down: she keeps an eye on the rue Cambon…
Imaginary interviewRomulus and Remus
On the Palatine, as the sun sets over the freshly traced furrow, a rugged man, his cloak fastened with a bronze fibula, contemplates the nascent walls of his city. The earth still carries the scent…
Imaginary interviewMax Planck · 1858 — 1947
Göttingen, autumn 1946. In a living room lent by friends, far from the ruins of Berlin, an old man of eighty-eight receives us, his back straight despite everything, a pince-nez on his nose. Max…
Imaginary interviewPierre de Ronsard · 1524 — 1585
October 1584. At the priory of Saint-Cosme, near Tours, a half-deaf old man greets us in his garden, a withered rose still between his fingers. He says he slept poorly, but smiles as soon as the word…
Imaginary interviewRamesses II · 1302 av. J.-C. — 1212 av. J.-C.
Pi-Ramesses, in the eastern Delta, at the hour when scribes light the lamps and the river turns copper. The old pharaoh, stooped but still sharp-eyed, receives in a hall where his own colossi stand…
Imaginary interviewSophocles · 495 av. J.-C. — 405 av. J.-C.
Athens, a warm evening at the end of the 5th century. The old poet receives visitors near the sanctuary of Colonus, where he was born, draped in his light wool himation. His voice is calm, his…
Imaginary interviewMarco Polo · 1254 — 1324
Genoa, autumn 1298. In a damp cell where the smell of the port and pitch seeps in, a Venetian merchant whose hands are still browned by twenty-four years of Asian sun receives his visitor. Before…
Imaginary interviewHenri IV · 1553 — 1610
Winter 1105. In a bare room of a palace in Liège, far from the splendor of Goslar, a man stripped of his crown agrees to speak. He ruled the Holy Roman Empire for half a century, defied two popes and…
Imaginary interviewTomoe Gozen · 1157 — 1247
At dusk, in a wooden courtyard swept by the wind of Shinano Province, a woman in dark hakama cleans the blade of a sword that glistens like a mountain stream. They say she rode alongside Minamoto no…
Imaginary interviewRosa Luxemburg · 1871 — 1919
Berlin, December 1918. Barely out of the dungeons where the war had kept her locked away, Rosa Luxemburg receives visitors in a modest apartment cluttered with newspapers and leaflets, while…
Imaginary interviewMorgan le Fay
The mist of Avalon never quite lifts; it hangs over the lake like a veil no mortal hand can part. There, in a hall where bundled herbs dry suspended and a tarnished silver mirror reflects faces that…
Imaginary interviewMadame de Staël · 1766 — 1817
October 1813. The traveler climbing the avenue of the château de Coppet, on the shores of Lake Geneva, finds Madame de Staël in a salon where the fire struggles against the first Alpine chills. A…
Imaginary interviewRosa Parks · 1913 — 2005
Detroit, a winter afternoon in the 1990s. In a small living room where light falls on a sewing machine tucked away in a corner, an elderly woman with a soft voice and a steady gaze agrees to look…
Imaginary interviewRachel Carson · 1907 — 1964
Summer 1963. On the porch of her summer house on Southport Island, Maine, Rachel Carson watches the tide recede over the rocks. Weakened by illness but sharp-eyed, she agrees to look back on a life…
Imaginary interviewLouis Pasteur · 1822 — 1895
Paris, autumn 1892. In an apartment of the Pasteur Institute still smelling of culture broth, a half-paralyzed old man receives us, his right hand still refusing to shake ours. Behind him, on the…
Imaginary interviewPythagoras · 582 av. J.-C. — 490 av. J.-C.
On the heights of Croton, in a courtyard open to the sea where the sand still bears traces of a figure drawn with the tip of a stick, an old man draped in white receives us in silence. He waits for…
Imaginary interviewLéon Blum · 1872 — 1950
Jouy-en-Josas, a winter morning in 1949. In a country house in the Yvelines lined with books, an old man with a neatly trimmed mustache and fine glasses receives us in his bare garden. He led France,…
Imaginary interviewPericles · 493 av. J.-C. — 428 av. J.-C.
Athens, an evening in late spring. The sun sets over the Acropolis, its scaffolding still silhouetted against the sky, and Pericles, his cloak thrown over his shoulder, agrees to talk at the foot of…
Imaginary interviewOsiris
In the oblique light of a chapel at Abydos, where incense still rises toward the carved walls, a figure wrapped in linen stands motionless on a low throne. His skin green as the river silt, his tall…
Imaginary interviewIsis
On the island of Philae, at the hour when the Nile still reflects the last torches of the sanctuary, a silhouette appears between the columns. Crowned with the sign of the throne, a sistrum in her…
Imaginary interviewJean-Baptiste Lamarck · 1744 — 1829
Paris, winter 1827. In a modest apartment adjoining the Jardin des Plantes, an old man nearly blind receives visitors near the window, a blanket over his knees and his daughter Cornélie sitting…
Imaginary interviewJules Ferry · 1832 — 1893
Paris, a winter evening in the 1880s. In his study on the Rue de Grenelle, cluttered with school textbooks and volumes of Auguste Comte, Jules Ferry receives visitors by lamplight. The man whom the…
Imaginary interviewMagellan · 1480 — 1521
March 1521. On a beach on the island of Cebu, at the edge of the known world, the captain general stands in the shade of a sail stretched between two palm trees. Three of his five ships remain, men…
Imaginary interviewGalileo · 1564 — 1642
Hills of Florence, winter 1641. In the Villa Il Gioiello in Arcetri, a blind old man receives us by the hearth, a viola leaning against the wall. Beyond the window, olive trees slope down toward the…
Imaginary interviewOedipus
The path that leads from Thebes to the sacred grove of Colonus ends under olive trees that no one prunes. There, a blind old man, his hand resting on a smooth staff, waits for someone to sit beside…
Imaginary interviewJean Racine · 1639 — 1699
April 1699, in a Parisian room with half-closed shutters, a stone's throw from Saint-Étienne-du-Mont. Jean Racine, his face gaunt from illness, receives his visitor between a Latin Bible lying on the…
Imaginary interviewMehmet II · 1432 — 1481
Istanbul, late summer 1480. On the high terrace of the new Topkapi Palace, where the Bosphorus merges with the Golden Horn, the Conqueror receives, draped in a crimson caftan, a Greek book open on…
Imaginary interviewNapoleon Bonaparte · 1769 — 1821
St. Helena, autumn 1820. In the modest Longwood house battered by the winds of the South Atlantic, the fallen Emperor agrees to receive a visitor. The gray overcoat thrown over his shoulders, a…
Imaginary interviewMadame de Sévigné · 1626 — 1696
Hôtel Carnavalet, one morning in the winter of 1685. In the large paneled study of the Marais, a goose quill still waits on the inkwell, beside a half-folded letter. The Marquise de Sévigné receives…
Imaginary interviewGeorge Sand · 1804 — 1876
Nohant, an autumn evening in 1873. The lady of the house receives us in her study cluttered with herbariums and blue sheets, an extinguished pipe resting near the inkwell. Outside, the Berry park…
Imaginary interviewHera
On the marble terrace of the Olympian palace, where the ether lets through neither the cold of mortals nor their too-timid prayers, the queen of the gods has agreed to receive. A peacock trails its…
Imaginary interviewMarguerite Duras · 1914 — 1996
Rue Saint-Benoît, an autumn evening, late 1980s. The apartment smells of paper, cold tobacco, and tepid white wine. Marguerite Duras receives us in a bathrobe, a cigarette in her hand, her voice…
Imaginary interviewRaphael · 1483 — 1520
Rome, one morning in the year 1519. In a dwelling in the Borgo, a stone's throw from the Vatican, the air smells of fresh lime and varnish. Amidst scattered sketches and rolled-up cartoons leaning…
Imaginary interviewNeil Armstrong · 1930 — 2012
Summer 2005, a quiet farm near Lebanon, Ohio. The man who first walked on the Moon rarely receives visitors, and always without ceremony. He speaks softly, choosing his words like an engineer checks…
Imaginary interviewMaimonides · 1135 — 1204
Cairo, the district of Fustat, at dusk. The philosopher returns from the Ayyubid palace, his face marked by long hours of consultation, and lingers for a moment in the courtyard of his home, near the…
Imaginary interviewJustinian · 482 — 565
Constantinople, the Sacred Palace, under the dome of the Chrysotriklinos. Night falls over the Bosporus and a lamp still burns near the throne. Emperor Justinian, his gaze tired but sharp, agrees to…
Imaginary interviewJean Moulin · 1899 — 1943
Summer 1943, in a borrowed apartment somewhere in the southern zone. The shutters are half-closed, an identity card in the name of Monsieur Mercier lies on the table. The man speaking wears a scarf…
Imaginary interviewGuy de Maupassant · 1850 — 1893
Autumn 1889. The villa 'La Guillette' in Étretat smells of polished wood and sea spray; through the window, one can make out the cliffs that the sea has been eroding forever. Guy de Maupassant,…
Imaginary interviewGeorges Bizet · 1838 — 1875
Bougival, spring 1875. In the country house by the Seine, the composer receives visitors, looking tired but sharp-eyed, a few weeks after the stormy premiere of Carmen. An upright piano occupies the…
Imaginary interviewBanksy · 1974 — ?
The meeting was arranged through encrypted messages, in an unmarked warehouse somewhere between Bristol and London. The room smells of spray paint and cut cardboard; on a table, dozens of stencils…
Imaginary interviewSappho · 650 av. J.-C. — 569 av. J.-C.
Evening falls on Mytilene, and the sea of Lesbos takes on the color of dark wine. In a courtyard bordered by columns, a woman tunes a lyre while young girls walk away laughing. She agrees to answer,…
Imaginary interviewMarie Tharp · 1920 — 2006
Palisades, New York, late 1970s. In an office at the Lamont Geological Observatory overlooking the Hudson Valley, a small woman leans over a huge drafting table covered with ink-drawn profiles. The…
Imaginary interviewLaskarina Bouboulina · 1771 — 1825
Spetses, an autumn evening in 1824. In the stone archontiko overlooking the port, a hard-eyed woman receives us, her pistols still lying on the table among sea charts and sealed letters. In the…
Imaginary interviewHenrietta Leavitt · 1868 — 1921
Cambridge, Massachusetts, winter 1912. In the great computer room of the Harvard College Observatory, piles of glass plates wait on the long tables. A woman in her forties, dark smock over her…
Imaginary interviewFanny Mendelssohn · 1805 — 1847
Berlin, a Sunday in the winter of 1846. In the grand salon of the villa on Leipziger Straße, the chairs are still lined up for the evening Sonntagsmusik. At the pianoforte, a forty-year-old woman is…
Imaginary interviewElizabeth I of England · 1533 — 1603
Richmond Palace, winter 1602. The queen receives in a gallery hung with tapestries, the virginal still open near the window overlooking the Thames. Her face powdered white, a red wig impeccably…
Imaginary interviewBan Zhao · 45 — 116
In the heart of Luoyang, in the Eastern Pavilion where the Han archives sleep, a woman in dark robes looks up from a bamboo scroll. The oil lamp lights her wrinkled face: it is Ban Zhao, whom the…
Imaginary interviewJean de La Fontaine · 1621 — 1695
One spring morning, on Rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs, at Madame de La Sablière's townhouse. The poet receives us amidst a benevolent disorder of books and manuscripts, an Aesop collection open on the…
Imaginary interviewHélène Dorion · 1958 — ?
It is in a wooden house set at the edge of the Laurentian forests, on a snowy morning when the light still hesitates, that Hélène Dorion receives us. On the table, an open notebook, a cooling coffee,…
Imaginary interviewJanus
On the threshold of the Ianus Geminus, at the heart of the Roman Forum, the noise of sandals and merchants fades as soon as one passes under the arch. There stands a presence with two faces, one…
Imaginary interviewGolda Meir · 1898 — 1978
Jerusalem, late winter 1974. In a modest kitchen where the coffee pot never cools, a seventy-five-year-old woman, black handbag set beside her chair, lights a cigarette and sits down. Golda Meir has…
Imaginary interviewEpicurus · 341 av. J.-C. — 269 av. J.-C.
Athens, around 280 BCE. Behind a roughly hewn wooden door, halfway between the Dipylon and the Academy, opens a vegetable garden planted with fig and olive trees. An aging man welcomes us there, a…
Imaginary interviewThe Lady of the Lake
They say you must wait for twilight, when the mist settles on the water, for the lake's surface to open like a door. On the edge of a pond in Brocéliande, where oaks plunge their roots into black…
Imaginary interviewHorus
The sanctuary of Edfu sleeps under the midday heat, its walls covered with reliefs where a falcon pierces a hippopotamus. In the dimness of the naos, where priests each morning place bread and beer,…
Imaginary interviewBrothers Grimm · 1785 — 1863
Kassel, a winter evening in the 1840s. In an apartment where books rise from floor to ceiling, two men share the same desk, the same oil lamp, sometimes the same sentence. Jacob looks up from his…
Imaginary interviewJocelyn Bell Burnell · 1943 — ?
One morning in June, in her office at the University of Oxford where observation reports pile up, Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell receives us with the calm of someone who spent her youth scrutinizing…
Imaginary interviewJean Anouilh · 1910 — 1987
Lausanne, autumn 1986. In a bright sitting room where the lake laps at the windows, Jean Anouilh receives, courteous and slightly distant, a cup of strong coffee within reach. He speaks softly, with…
Imaginary interviewErnest Rutherford · 1871 — 1937
Cambridge, a foggy afternoon in 1932. In his office at Newnham Cottage, pipe in hand, the man who has seen into the heart of the atom receives, his bass voice already resonating down the corridor…
Imaginary interviewChristina of Sweden · 1626 — 1689
Rome, 1685. In a gallery of the Palazzo Riario where paintings by Baciccio stand alongside celestial globes and shelves laden with manuscripts, a woman of fifty-nine receives us, dressed in a curious…
Imaginary interviewJoachim du Bellay · 1522 — 1560
Paris, winter 1559. In a modest dwelling on the Left Bank, a stone's throw from the colleges, a tired-faced man receives us near a window where a candle flickers. Joachim du Bellay, back from Rome…
Imaginary interviewHades
No living soul crosses these gates without reason, yet the interview was granted. In the great hall of basalt where the Styx murmurs in the distance and Cerberus dozes at the threshold, the Lord of…
Imaginary interviewFriedrich Nietzsche · 1844 — 1900
Turin, winter 1888. On the fourth floor of a building on Via Carlo Alberto, in a bare room furnished with a bed, a table, and stacks of books, a man with thick glasses and an imposing mustache…
Imaginary interviewEugène Ionesco · 1909 — 1994
Grey late afternoon at the Tuileries. In his apartment cluttered with manuscripts and canvases populated by rhinoceroses, Eugène Ionesco receives us, his round eyes behind thick glasses, a cup of…
Imaginary interviewÉmile Zola · 1840 — 1902
Médan, an autumn morning in 1898. Émile Zola has just returned from his English exile; he receives us in his vast study cluttered with notebooks and cameras, the Seine glistening beyond the windows.…
Imaginary interviewAeneas
On the shore of Lavinium, where the Trojan fleet finally touched a promised land, a man gazes at the sea that has tossed him so much. His face weathered by ten years of salt and fire, Aeneas agrees…
Imaginary interviewJames Cook · 1728 — 1779
We imagined him in the aft cabin of the Resolution, by the light of a lamp swaying with the swell, a table covered with still-damp charts. The man is lean, methodical, sparing but precise in speech.…
Imaginary interviewEuripides · 480 av. J.-C. — 406 av. J.-C.
We met him on the island of Salamis, where the murmur of the waves drowns out that of the city. The old poet receives us at the entrance of a cave facing the open sea, a papyrus scroll resting on his…
Imaginary interviewWinston Churchill · 1874 — 1965
November 1953. In the great drawing-room of Chartwell, the Kent fog clings to the windows and a cigar slowly burns in a crystal ashtray. The man who has just received the Nobel Prize in Literature…
Imaginary interviewVigdís Finnbogadóttir · 1930 — ?
Reykjavík, a spring morning. Cold light streams through the windows of the Vigdís International Centre, where the world's languages are stored like treasures. A ninety-year-old woman receives us, her…
Imaginary interviewToni Morrison · 1931 — 2019
Late autumn afternoon in a house in Princeton, the shelves bending under manuscripts and the smell of cold coffee still lingering. Toni Morrison, a dark shawl on her shoulders, settles near the…
Imaginary interviewSaladin · 1138 — 1193
Under the command tent pitched near reconquered Jerusalem, in the autumn of 583 AH, the Sultan receives visitors. A bronze lamp illuminates an illuminated Qur'an placed on a chest, and the…
Imaginary interviewRosalind Franklin · 1920 — 1958
Winter 1957. At Birkbeck College, in a laboratory still cluttered with film reels and sealed tubes, a researcher puts away her plates with methodical slowness. Rosalind Franklin agrees to speak, on…
Imaginary interviewThoth
At Khemenu, which the Greeks would later call Hermopolis, night falls on the hall of papyri. Under the lamp, an ibis-headed figure tilts his long beak toward the scale placed near the inkwell. He…
Imaginary interviewVirgil · 69 av. J.-C. — 18 av. J.-C.
Naples, his final years. In a domus open to the bay, where the light falls slantwise on the papyrus rolls, Rome's most famous poet reluctantly receives visitors — he prefers, he says, shadow to the…
Imaginary interviewVirginia Woolf · 1882 — 1941
Monk's House, Rodmell, on a windy afternoon in the late 1930s. In the Sussex garden, under a low sky, Virginia Woolf receives between walks, a notebook on her lap. The conversation begins in a low…
Imaginary interviewSimone Weil · 1909 — 1943
Summer 1942, in a modest office of Free France in London, amid piles of pages blackened with feverish handwriting. A thin woman, round glasses and burning gaze, pushes aside her barely touched plate…
Imaginary interviewThor
Thunder rolled all night above the roofs of Bilskirnir, and in the morning the god receives us in his immense palace of five hundred and forty rooms, Mjölnir placed beside him on the table, still…
Imaginary interviewSigmund Freud · 1856 — 1939
Vienna, autumn 1938 — or rather London, already, because 19 Berggasse is nothing more than a memory sealed by the Nazis. In a study in Hampstead where, showcase by showcase, his collection of…
Imaginary interviewPierre Corneille · 1606 — 1684
Paris, winter 1675. In a modest candlelit dwelling, far from the bustle of the theaters that made his glory, an old man with a lively gaze receives us among his manuscripts. Pierre Corneille, the…
Imaginary interviewVasco de Gama · 1460 — 1525
Lisbon, a late afternoon in 1524, a few weeks before his third departure for the East. The admiral receives guests in a house near the Tagus, rolled maps and an astrolabe on the table. His voice is…
Imaginary interviewNicolas Copernicus · 1473 — 1543
Frombork, on the shores of the Baltic Sea, a winter evening in 1542. In the brick turret where the wind whistles through the arrow slits, an old man in a canon's robe puts away his instruments. He…
Imaginary interviewOlympe de Gouges · 1748 — 1793
Paris, autumn 1791. In a Right Bank apartment cluttered with sheets and printer's proofs, a candle is burning down on a writing desk. Olympe de Gouges has just had her latest Declaration posted; she…
Imaginary interviewSolon · 629 av. J.-C. — 559 av. J.-C.
Under the portico of the Agora, at the hour when the slanting sun strikes the freshly engraved stelae, an old man in a simple woolen cloak watches the passersby who stop to read his laws. He has just…
Imaginary interviewSolomon · 989 av. J.-C. — 930 av. J.-C.
Jerusalem, in the coolness of an audience chamber where the cedar of Lebanon still perfumes the walls. The king receives between two judgments, the royal seal on his finger, the evening light falling…
Imaginary interviewSun Wukong
On the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit, where waterfalls fall like curtains of jade, the Monkey King sits on a rock warm from the sun, twirling between his fingers a staff no larger than a sewing…
Imaginary interviewRené Descartes · 1596 — 1650
Holland, a morning in the winter of 1643. In a brick house rented under a false name, near a snoring tiled stove, a man in a dark doublet reluctantly receives us — he has barely left his covers, and…
Imaginary interviewWu Zetian · 624 — 705
Luoyang, a winter dawn, at the end of the first decade of the 8th century. In a palace hall where sandalwood incense mingles with the cold of Henan, an old woman receives, draped in purple, her face…
Imaginary interviewNellie Bly · 1864 — 1922
New York, a winter evening, in a smoky café on Park Row, a stone's throw from the presses that rumble until dawn. Nellie Bly, her hat still dusted with snow, sets her small leather bag on the table…
Imaginary interviewMontesquieu · 1689 — 1755
It is in the great library of the Château de La Brède, among the thousands of volumes lined up behind the medieval moats, that Montesquieu receives us, one autumn at the end of his life. The light…
Imaginary interviewSimone Veil · 1927 — 2017
Paris, a bright apartment in the 16th arrondissement, late autumn. On the coffee table, the proofs of a newly published memoir, Une vie (A Life). Simone Veil receives informally, her voice steady,…
Imaginary interviewNathalie Sarraute · 1900 — 1999
Paris, a late autumn afternoon, in an apartment in the 16th arrondissement where books reach the ceiling and a typewriter sleeps under its cover. Nathalie Sarraute, petite, with a sharp gaze, serves…
Imaginary interviewPablo Picasso · 1881 — 1973
Mougins, winter 1972. The master receives us at the villa Notre-Dame-de-Vie, between a table covered with Vallauris ceramics and a barely begun canvas. At ninety-one, his eye remains that of a…
Imaginary interviewPhilippe Auguste · 1165 — 1223
Palais de la Cité, on the island at the heart of the Seine. King Philip, the second of that name, surnamed Augustus, receives us in a great vaulted hall where the wax of seals is still drying.…
Imaginary interviewOscar Wilde · 1854 — 1900
Paris, November 1900. In a cramped room at the Hôtel d'Alsace, rue des Beaux-Arts, an emaciated man receives visitors, draped in a threadbare dressing gown, his smile intact despite ruin. Under the…
Imaginary interviewRobespierre · 1758 — 1794
Summer 1794. In a modest room of the carpenter Duplay's house, rue Saint-Honoré, a few steps from the Jacobin Club, a slight man, in a blue coat and freshly powdered wig, sets aside his papers to…
Imaginary interviewMolière · 1622 — 1673
Paris, winter 1672. In a smoky box at the Palais-Royal, between two rehearsals, a hollow-faced man puts away his texts and coughs more than he would like. Molière agrees to set aside the mask of…
Imaginary interviewMachiavelli · 1469 — 1527
San Casciano, winter 1521. At the end of a muddy road in the Val di Pesa, a Tuscan stone house watches over the bare vineyards. In a cramped study where ink is still drying, a fifty-year-old man…
Imaginary interviewZenobia · 240 — 275
Palmyra, at dusk. The sandstone colonnades redden one last time while the last caravans come to a halt at the city gates. In an audience hall still carrying the scent of myrrh, a woman wearing a…
Imaginary interviewTarana Burke · 1973 — ?
It's in a community center in Harlem, between folding chairs and the smell of lukewarm coffee, that Tarana Burke agreed to sit for an hour. The founder of Me Too speaks softly, as one speaks to…
Imaginary interviewRanavalona III · 1861 — 1917
Algiers, 1916. In a modest villa on the heights of the white city, a fifty-five-year-old woman receives, draped in a worn but crown-like lamba. The last queen of Madagascar agrees to speak — of lost…
Imaginary interviewMother Teresa · 1910 — 1997
Calcutta, late monsoon afternoon. In a bare cell of the mother house, a wooden bed, a cross on the wall, a small woman in a white sari bordered with blue folds her correspondence. She agrees to…
Imaginary interviewJunko Tabei · 1939 — 2016
Tokyo, autumn 2015. In a suburban house where a piano still occupies the living room, Junko Tabei receives, a steaming cup of tea in her hands, a scarf tied over hair thinned by illness. Behind her,…
Imaginary interviewPrometheus
On the flank of a mountain in the Caucasus, where the wind scours the bare rock, adamantine chains hold a Titan with an immense gaze riveted. The eagle has just departed for the day; the wound is…
Imaginary interviewLouis Aragon · 1897 — 1982
Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines, an autumn afternoon. In the country house where Elsa is no more, the libraries still overflow with books in several languages and a Matisse keeps watch over the desk…
Imaginary interviewNadine Gordimer · 1923 — 2014
Parktown, Johannesburg, late afternoon. In a low house surrounded by books and African masks, a small woman answers with sharp precision, the golden Highveld veld visible through the window. Nadine…
Imaginary interviewZeus
You do not meet the king of the gods: you are summoned. The cloud opens at the summit of Mount Olympus, the air smells of ozone and hot bronze, and a deep voice, slow as thunder ripening, agrees to…
Imaginary interviewPoseidon
The promontory of Sounion, at the hour when the sun falls into the Aegean Sea and the temple columns cast their long shadows over the waves. The air smells of salt and warm stone. The god does not…
Imaginary interviewTristan and Iseult
On the deck of a ship gliding from Ireland to Cornwall, the wind still carries the scent of salt and a spilled brew. Tristan holds a harp against his hip; Iseut, a crown set beside her, watches the…
Imaginary interviewKarl Marx · 1818 — 1883
London, a damp afternoon in the late 1870s. In two cramped rooms in Soho, amid piles of newspapers and collapsing manuscripts, a man with a thick beard relights his pipe and brushes aside British…
Imaginary interviewVercors · 1902 — 1991
Paris, a winter evening in an apartment in the Latin Quarter. The lamp is low, the chicory coffee has gone cold. The man France knew as Vercors, and whose civil status names Jean Bruller, agrees to…
Imaginary interviewPepin the Short · 714 — 768
Verberie, on the banks of the Oise, a winter evening when the great wooden hall still smells of the banquet's smoke. The King of the Franks, short but sharp-eyed, agrees to linger by the fire while…
Imaginary interviewOdysseus
On a beach in Ithaca, at dusk, a man with a face tanned by salt mends a net near a boat pulled ashore. He has placed his crown farther off, on a stone. He agrees to talk, provided he can keep his…
Imaginary interviewPersephone
No one descends here without paying passage, yet she consented to the interview, seated on a throne of black marble veined with gold, an opened pomegranate resting on her knees. Above us, the distant…
Imaginary interviewJules Verne · 1828 — 1905
Amiens, one morning in the winter of 1897. In the red brick tower on rue Charles-Dubois, at the top of a spiral staircase, a sixty-nine-year-old man closes a notebook covered in tight handwriting.…
Imaginary interviewWilliam Shakespeare · 1564 — 1616
London, an afternoon in the year 1613. On the south bank of the Thames, where the still-warm ashes of the Globe mingle with the mud of Bankside, a man in a sober doublet and trimmed beard receives us…
Imaginary interviewOrpheus
On the slopes of Mount Haemus, where the stone still echoes with songs of mourning, a man tunes a lyre whose strings seem to vibrate on their own. He wears the draped himation of Thracian poets, and…
Imaginary interviewPierre de Fermat · 1607 — 1665
Toulouse, a winter evening in 1662. In the study of a private mansion, behind the black robe folded on an armchair, a councilor to the Parliament closes a judicial file and opens an old annotated…
Imaginary interviewGustave Courbet · 1819 — 1877
Autumn 1876. On the shores of Lake Geneva, in the small town of La Tour-de-Peilz where exile has relegated him, a massive man with graying beard receives between two still-wet canvases. Ruined,…
Imaginary interviewToussaint Louverture · 1743 — 1803
April 1802, at Fort de Joux, in the biting cold of the Jura that this man of the tropics had never known. Behind the dripping stone walls, an old general in a worn uniform receives his visitor…
Imaginary interviewPablo Neruda · 1904 — 1973
September 1973. In his house at Isla Negra, where the Pacific Ocean pounds beneath windows cluttered with seashells and ship figureheads, Pablo Neruda receives visitors, weakened but lucid, wrapped…
Imaginary interviewVictoria · 1819 — 1901
Osborne House, Isle of Wight, a grey afternoon in 1898. The Queen receives in her private study, dressed in black, a widow's cap on her hair. On the desk, an open journal, a quill, and the framed…
Imaginary interviewJean Calvin · 1509 — 1564
Geneva, autumn 1563. In a modest house in the upper town, a stone's throw from St. Peter's Cathedral, a man exhausted by fever receives his visitor without ceremony, a pile of manuscripts still damp…
Imaginary interviewMulan
At the threshold of a rammed-earth house, in a small town in northern China, a woman puts away a loom near the central hearth. A warrior's armor rests, folded, on a wooden chest; beside it, a silk…
Imaginary interviewMarie-Antoinette · 1755 — 1793
October 1793. In a damp cell at the Conciergerie, by the light of a candle, a thirty-seven-year-old woman in a white dress agrees to answer, one last time, questions that are not those of her judges.…
Imaginary interviewTheseus
On the terrace of the palace of Athens, at the hour when the sun sinks behind the Acropolis, the king receives us. A bronze sword rests against the column of the megaron, and the sea gleams in the…
Imaginary interviewJohn Locke · 1632 — 1704
October 1703. In the study that the Mashams lend him at Oates, deep in the Essex countryside, an elderly asthmatic man receives us among his books and scientific instruments. The teapot steams, the…
Imaginary interviewNelson Mandela · 1918 — 2013
Qunu, late afternoon. Old Madiba receives us in the shade of a low wall, his gaze turned toward the green hills of the Transkei where he herded cattle as a child. His voice is slow, measured, without…
Imaginary interviewHonoré de Balzac · 1799 — 1850
Passy, 1847. In a house on Rue Raynouard where the furniture was bought on credit and candles burn in broad daylight, a massive man in a white woolen robe receives us, a cup of black coffee in hand.…
Imaginary interviewSirimavo Bandaranaike · 1916 — 2000
Colombo, early 1977. Under the ceiling fans of Temple Trees, between two files, Sirimavo Bandaranaike receives in a white sari edged with gold. The tea steams, the monsoon taps at the windows, and…
Imaginary interviewNoah
The construction site still smells of pitch and green wood. In the shadow of Mount Ararat, where the great hull has finally come to rest, an old man with a white beard sits on a beam, his hands…
Imaginary interviewRobert Desnos · 1900 — 1945
Place Blanche, late afternoon. At the back of the Café Cyrano, where the surrealists remade the world between glasses of bistro wine, a man with a restless gaze fiddles with a matchbox while rolling…
Imaginary interviewMarcus Aurelius · 121 — 180
Night falls on the camp at Carnuntum, on the banks of the swollen Danube. Under the praetorium tent, an oil lamp illuminates a man crouched over wax tablets — the emperor who commands by day and…
Imaginary interviewMartin Luther · 1483 — 1546
Wittenberg, winter 1545. In the great hall of the former Augustinian monastery, a long table still littered with supper scraps. Near the hearth, a massive man with keen eyes, a lute leaning against…
Imaginary interviewSamson · 1117 av. J.-C. — 1077 av. J.-C.
We met him on a rocky ridge above Zorah, where the territory of Dan looks out toward the Philistine plain. The wind smelled of burnt straw and wild honey. The man with hair braided in seven locks…
Imaginary interviewLouise Michel · 1830 — 1905
January 1905, a narrow room somewhere between two train stations, on the road to yet another lecture tour. A woman dressed all in black, her face hollowed by seventy-four winters and as many…
Imaginary interviewMargaret Thatcher · 1925 — 2013
London, a winter evening in the late 1980s. In her first-floor office at Downing Street, a red box half-open on the table, Margaret Thatcher receives visitors at the late hour when she still works…
Imaginary interviewRichard the Lionheart · 1157 — 1199
Under the royal tent pitched near the reconquered walls, on the eve of a new assault, the King of England receives us, his red surcoat still dusted with the powder of the roads. The sea of the Holy…
Imaginary interviewKrishna · 3227 av. J.-C. — 3101 av. J.-C.
On the chariot halted between the two armies at Kurukshetra, in the suspended hour when the conches have not yet sounded, he who is called an avatar of Vishnu holds the reins of Arjuna's horses. Here…
Imaginary interviewWolfgang Amadeus Mozart · 1756 — 1791
Vienna, one morning in autumn 1791. In a rented apartment where sheets of ruled paper and a nearly dry inkwell lie about, a small man, already weary, sets down his quill near the pianoforte. He…
Imaginary interviewLéopold Sédar Senghor · 1906 — 2001
Verson, Normandy, one autumn evening. In a low house whose walls are studded with Serer masks and bookshelves rising to the ceiling, an old man with a gentle voice receives guests, a cup of tea in…
Imaginary interviewSandro Botticelli · 1445 — 1510
Florence, one morning in the year 1500, in a house-workshop in the Santa Maria Novella district. The smell of beaten egg yolk and turpentine hangs in the air between the easels. A stocky man, his…
Imaginary interviewJean-Jacques Rousseau · 1712 — 1778
Summer 1778, Ermenonville. Under the marquis de Girardin's poplars, an old man in a threadbare caftan returns from botanizing, his tin box still warm from the sun. He agrees to sit for a moment, his…
Imaginary interviewJohn von Neumann · 1903 — 1957
Princeton, winter 1955. In the grand living room on Westcott Road, the radio plays too loudly and a detective novel lies open on the armrest. John von Neumann, impeccably dressed in a three-piece…
Imaginary interviewPtolemy · 250 — 350
Alexandria, an evening in the summer of 150. On the terrace of a house in the Greek quarter, the air still smells of the salt of the harbor and the wax of lamps. Leaning over his papyrus rolls, a…
Imaginary interviewRita Levi-Montalcini · 1909 — 2012
Rome, Parioli district, a bright apartment cluttered with scientific journals and a few canvases signed by her sister Paola. At over a hundred years old, Rita Levi-Montalcini's gaze remains that of a…
Imaginary interviewIsabella I of Castile · 1451 — 1504
Medina del Campo, autumn 1504. In a chamber of the Castle of la Mota hung with dark tapestries, a queen with a pale complexion but a firm gaze receives us, a rosary between her fingers and, nearby, a…
Imaginary interviewMoses
At the edge of the desert, under a tent of goat hair that the wind of Sinai makes flap, an old man with a veiled face receives the traveler. The campfire lights up a shepherd's staff leaning against…
Imaginary interviewPaul Éluard · 1895 — 1952
November 1947. In a Parisian apartment whose walls are covered with canvases gifted by Picasso and Ernst, a man with a gentle gaze welcomes us, a dog-eared notebook beside him. The war is over, Nusch…
Imaginary interviewLudwig van Beethoven · 1770 — 1827
Vienna, an evening in the winter of 1826. In a cluttered apartment strewn with scores, dirty cups, and a piano with sawn-off legs, a man with wild gray hair gestures for us to write our questions in…
Imaginary interviewJohn F. Kennedy · 1917 — 1963
Washington, autumn 1963. The light is fading over the Oval Office as the president receives, between two files, in a light wooden rocking chair placed near the fireplace. He speaks softly, his voice…
Imaginary interviewRené Char · 1907 — 1988
The water of the Sorgue runs beneath the open windows, in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, on this late afternoon in 1975. René Char receives us in a cool room with half-closed shutters, cluttered with books…
Imaginary interviewRama
On the banks of the Sarayu, in the shadow of the terraces of Ayodhyā, he whom tradition calls the seventh avatar of Vishnu consents to speak. The sun declines over the kingdom he calls his own; the…
Imaginary interviewJames Watson & Francis Crick · 1928 — 2004 / 1916 — 2004
Cambridge, a gray spring afternoon. In a room at the Cavendish Laboratory cluttered with metal rods and cut-out plates, two men pass the conversation back and forth without ever finishing each…
Imaginary interviewLeonhard Euler · 1707 — 1783
Saint Petersburg, autumn 1783. In a study cluttered with papers his eyes can no longer see, a blind old man dictates numbers to his son from daybreak. He agrees to interrupt his calculations for a…
Imaginary interviewHenri Bergson · 1859 — 1941
One afternoon in the winter of 1928, in a quiet apartment in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The master, already tired but with a keen eye, receives between an imposing library and a pocket watch…
Imaginary interviewGutenberg · 1400 — 1468
Mainz, a grey morning in the winter of 1467. In a workshop where the smell of molten lead mingles with that of linseed oil ink, an old man with stained hands receives us among his now-silent presses.…
Imaginary interviewSigurd
In the great wooden hall where an oak fire crackles, a warrior with a pale gaze turns a gold ring between his fingers. Outside, the dark forest keeps watch. He agrees to speak of Gram, the dragon,…
Imaginary interviewRa
Before dawn, on the first hill of the world, where the east pales, the barque already waits. The sun god consents to a halt, the golden disk still low on the horizon, and agrees to speak of his…
Imaginary interviewEugène Delacroix · 1798 — 1863
Place Furstenberg, a winter morning in 1862. The oblique light falls on unfinished canvases and the large easel; in a corner, Jenny Le Guillou brings a light tea. Eugène Delacroix, in a dark frock…
Imaginary interviewAl-Khwârizmî · 780 — 850
Baghdad, under the reign of al-Ma'mun. In a cool room of the House of Wisdom, among Greek and Indian scrolls copied by candlelight, a man with a turban dusted with ink looks up from his tablets. He…
Imaginary interviewPlato · 428 av. J.-C. — 348 av. J.-C.
Athens, late afternoon. Under the porticoes of the Academy, a stone's throw from the garden consecrated to the hero Academus, an old man with broad shoulders puts away his wax tablets. The sun is…
Imaginary interviewMirabai · 1498 — 1546
At dusk, on a ghat of Dwarka where Gujarat meets the sea, a woman in saffron veils sets down her ektara against the still-warm stone. They say she was a princess of Mewar; she says she has never had…
Imaginary interviewMichel Foucault · 1926 — 1984
March 1979, late afternoon on Rue de Vaugirard. Bald head, round glasses resting on a pile of archival index cards, Michel Foucault tidies up the newspaper clippings scattered across his desk. He…
Imaginary interviewMargaret Hamilton · 1936 — ?
Cambridge, Massachusetts, a winter evening in the late sixties. The neon lights of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory hum over desks strewn with annotated listings. Margaret Hamilton, cold coffee…
Imaginary interviewJean-François de La Pérouse · 1741 — 1788
We met him aboard the Boussole, somewhere in the warm seas of the South Pacific, in this year 1788 when no one yet knew he was living on borrowed time. The great aft cabin smells of salt, candle wax,…
Imaginary interviewIndira Gandhi · 1917 — 1984
New Delhi, late afternoon at 1, Safdarjung Road. A fresh white rose is pinned to her ecru khadi sari, as every day. In the garden she cherishes, between two Intelligence Bureau dispatches, Indira…
Imaginary interviewYaa Asantewaa · 1832 — 1921
Kumasi, in the shade of the trees where councils are held. The Queen Mother of Ejisu receives, upright despite her years, the gaze of one who has seen chiefs hesitate and guns fall silent. She speaks…
Imaginary interviewGermaine Tailleferre · 1892 — 1983
Montfort-l'Amaury, an autumn morning. In a house in the Yvelines where the grand piano takes up almost all the space, a slight ninety-year-old lady receives us, handwritten scores piled on the stool.…
Imaginary interviewSelma Lagerlöf · 1858 — 1940
Värmland, early autumn 1920. The mistress of Mårbacka receives us in the grand salon of her reclaimed estate, where the low light of Swedish forests falls on a desk cluttered with papers. Coffee…
Imaginary interviewEnheduanna · 2300 av. J.-C. — 2300 av. J.-C.
At the top of the ziggurat of Nanna in Ur, the crescent moon has just risen over the marshes and the evening libation is finishing its smoke. Enheduanna, high priestess and daughter of Sargon of…
Imaginary interviewRābiʿa al-ʿAdawiyya · vers 717 — 801
Basra, at the hour when the markets empty and the river reflects the last glimmers of daylight. In a mud-brick dwelling, almost bare, a woman in coarse woolen clothing receives us, her oil lamp…
Imaginary interviewCaroline Herschel · 1750 — 1848
Hanover, a winter evening in the 1840s. In a modest apartment cluttered with registers, letters, and ephemerides, a tiny old woman, nearly a centenarian, receives a visitor by candlelight. Caroline…
Imaginary interviewMedusa
One does not meet a Gorgon: one approaches her backward, eyes fixed on the polished bronze of a shield. It is thus, in a damp cave on the Libyan borders, that Medusa's voice reaches us — hissing,…
Imaginary interviewAmelia Earhart · 1897 — 1939
Oakland hangar, late spring 1937. The silver twin-engine glistens under the neon lights while mechanics and maps pile up around a woman in canvas trousers, sleeves rolled up. She agrees to set down…
Imaginary interviewIris Murdoch · 1919 — 1999
Steeple Aston, a grey afternoon in Oxfordshire. In a house where books rise in unstable piles along the walls and the garden spills in through the windows, Iris Murdoch pushes aside a half-filled…
Imaginary interviewJean-Paul Sartre · 1905 — 1980
A spring afternoon in 1975, on the first floor of the Café de Flore, where the marble tables still hold the smell of cold tobacco. The man sits down, pipe already lit, his strabismus fixed on an…
Imaginary interviewLeibniz · 1646 — 1716
Hanover, autumn 1715. In a low room cluttered with loose sheets, a man in a large gray wig receives us, a quill still in hand. All around, bundles of letters pile up to the windows — remnants of a…
Imaginary interviewHelen of Troy
The megaron of Sparta still smells of freshly dyed purple and warm lamp oil. Helen receives us near an unfinished loom, a bronze mirror resting on her knees. Her voice is low, unhurried, like that of…
Imaginary interviewPrimo Levi · 1919 — 1987
Turin, a winter evening, on the third floor of a bourgeois building on Corso Re Umberto. Primo Levi welcomes us into the study where he writes in the evening, his typewriter still open, as if the…
Imaginary interviewOdin
At the foot of the tree Yggdrasil, where nine worlds knot into a single trunk, a traveler found a one-eyed old man, hooded, a dark blue cloak thrown over his shoulder, two ravens dozing near him. He…
Imaginary interviewRoland
Day is fading on the heights of Roncevaux, in that Pyrenean pass where Charlemagne's rearguard was ambushed. Leaning against a gray rock, sword still in hand, the most illustrious of paladins agrees…
Imaginary interviewLouis XVI · 1754 — 1793
Winter 1792. In the damp gloom of the Temple Tower, a man in grey receives his visitor by candlelight, surrounded by a pile of geography books. A deposed king, a citizen without a crown, he agrees to…
Imaginary interviewMartin Luther King · 1929 — 1968
Memphis, April 3, 1968. A room at the Lorraine Motel, suitcases barely unpacked, thunder rumbling over the Mississippi. The man who welcomes us is thirty-nine years old, his voice still warm from the…
Imaginary interviewMadame de La Fayette · 1634 — 1693
One winter evening, on Rue de Vaugirard, the candles burn low in the salon of the Comtesse de La Fayette. The last visitors have left; she consents, for once, to speak of herself rather than listen…
Imaginary interviewMary Anning · 1799 — 1843
Lyme Regis, a low-tide morning. The mist lifts from the blue-gray cliffs of Dorset, and we find Mary Anning where she is always sought: on the foreshore, basket on arm and hammer in hand, eyes fixed…
Imaginary interviewGayatri Spivak · 1942 —
New York, late afternoon. In an office at Columbia University where books rise from floor to ceiling, in Bengali, English and French, Gayatri Spivak sets down a cup of spiced tea. A cotton sari over…
Imaginary interviewMarivaux · 1688 — 1763
Paris, winter 1758. In a modest apartment cluttered with loose sheets and crossed-out manuscripts, a seventy-year-old man receives us, his wig slightly askew, his eye still lively. Outside, the…
Imaginary interviewHugh Capet · 940 — 996
Winter 988. In the great hall of a fortified palace in Senlis, the central hearth crackles while outside the forests of Île-de-France sleep under the frost. A broad-shouldered man, dressed in a…
Imaginary interviewMichelle Bachelet · 1951 — ?
Geneva, late summer 2022. The Palais des Nations has just emptied of its delegations, and Michelle Bachelet is putting away the last files of her term as High Commissioner. Black coffee in hand, she…
Imaginary interviewJean de La Bruyère · 1645 — 1696
Chantilly, an autumn evening in 1693. In a study lined with books, by the light of a copper candlestick, a discreet man sets down his goose-feather pen on the inkwell. He has just been received into…
Imaginary interviewMiguel de Cervantes · 1547 — 1616
Madrid, winter 1615. In a house with a patio in the Letras district, an old man with a lifeless left hand receives us, a goose quill resting on still-damp pages. His voice is slow, but his eye…
Imaginary interviewHermes
We waited for him at a crossroads in Arcadia, where a stone pillar bears his face. He arrived without a sound, sandals barely touching the dust of the road, a smile like a boy who has just pulled a…
Imaginary interviewRobin Hood
Night falls on Sherwood Forest, and a campfire crackles in the hollow of a clearing that no path points to. Leaning against an oak, a longbow laid across his knees, a man in a green cloak signals to…
Imaginary interviewJacques Cartier · 1492 — 1557
Saint-Malo, a winter evening around 1550. The wind from the sea rattles the shutters of the Manoir de Limoëlou, and a wood fire lights the weathered face of the captain. On the table: rolled-up…
Imaginary interviewMark Antony · 82 av. J.-C. — 29 av. J.-C.
Alexandria, in the palace of the Lagids by the sea. Night falls over the harbor; the laughter of a dying banquet can still be heard. Mark Antony, his cuirass set aside, cup in hand, agrees to speak…
Imaginary interviewAndreas Vesalius · 1515 — 1564
Padua, a winter evening in 1543. The candles still smoke above the table of the anatomical theater, where a body lies under a sheet. Andreas Vesalius, barely twenty-eight, has just closed the proofs…
Imaginary interviewGregor Mendel · 1822 — 1884
Brno, autumn 1883. In the already withered garden of St. Thomas's Monastery, a stout man in an Augustinian habit lingers near the last rows of peas. Now abbot, burdened with paperwork, he…
Imaginary interviewMerlin
Deep in the Forest of Brocéliande, where light shatters into a thousand fragments under the beech trees, a voice answers before it is even called. Merlin does not appear: he was already there, his…
Imaginary interviewMarguerite Yourcenar · 1903 — 1987
Northeast Harbor, Maine, late autumn afternoon. The wind comes from the ocean and makes the wood of Petite Plaisance creak, where thousands of books rise to the ceiling. Marguerite Yourcenar receives…
Imaginary interviewHercules
At the foot of Mount Oeta, where the pyre once smoked, a man in a wild beast's skin sat on a rock, his club laid across his knees. The sweat of the Underworld had not yet dried on his brow. He agreed…
Imaginary interviewMaryam Mirzakhani · 1977 — 2017
A clear morning in Palo Alto, the California sun falls on the floor of an office where long rolls of paper spread out like explorer's maps. Maryam Mirzakhani receives us in socks, a colored pencil in…
Imaginary interviewGorbachev · 1931 — 2022
December 2021. In a quiet apartment near Moscow, a ninety-year-old man receives us, his voice calm, his gaze still sharp beneath the famous birthmark. Thirty years after lowering the red flag,…
Imaginary interviewNero · 37 — 68
Rome, AD 65. In a room of the Domus Aurea still fresh with plaster, under a dome that turns like the sky, the emperor Nero sets down a cithara and agrees to answer, between two cups, a visitor who…
Imaginary interviewEuclid · 333 av. J.-C. — 284 av. J.-C.
Alexandria, end of the reign of Ptolemy I. In a room of the Mouseîon where morning light falls on aligned papyrus rolls, a gray-bearded man wipes a figure from a wax tablet with his finger. Euclid…
Imaginary interviewOvid · 42 av. J.-C. — 17
Tomis, on the shores of the Pontus Euxinus, a winter evening around the year 15. The Getic wind whistles against the shutters of a wooden house where an aging Roman fastens his cloak of thick wool.…
Imaginary interviewCharles Babbage · 1791 — 1871
London, a Saturday evening in the winter of 1864. At 1 Dorset Street, candles illuminate the brass fragment that sits like a relic in the middle of the drawing room. Charles Babbage, in a dark frock…
Imaginary interviewMelusine
At dusk, near a fountain in the forest of Coulombiers, a lady of water agrees to appear. Her gown trails on the moss, and one can guess, beneath the hem, something that is not quite a foot. She…
Imaginary interviewDavid Hume · 1711 — 1776
Edinburgh, an evening in 1776. In a brand-new house in the New Town, at the corner of the street that will soon bear his name, a jovial fat man welcomes us in his shirtsleeves, a glass of Bordeaux in…
Imaginary interviewHannah Arendt · 1906 — 1975
New York, winter 1974. In an Upper West Side apartment cluttered with books, a woman receives us cigarette in hand, the Olivetti still warm on the desk. Hannah Arendt speaks softly, with the accent…
Imaginary interviewEllen Johnson Sirleaf · 1938 — ?
Monrovia, a dry-season morning. In a living room of the Executive Mansion, facing the estuary where the Atlantic beats against a city still scarred by war, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf receives, her gesture…
Imaginary interviewRenart
It is at Maupertuis, in the maze of galleries dug beneath a motte in Flanders, that the fox agrees to receive us. He makes us sit on a stolen bale of straw, keeps an eye on the exit — an old habit —…
Imaginary interviewIbn Battûta · 1304 — 1368
At dusk, in a shaded courtyard in Fez, an old man in a white turban unrolls the roads of the world from memory. Nearly thirty years of dust and seas are still written on his face. He agrees to…
Imaginary interviewHans Christian Andersen · 1805 — 1875
Copenhagen, a winter evening. In a hotel room cluttered with notebooks and scraps of black paper, a very tall man stands near the window, scissors in hand. Hans Christian Andersen receives with the…
Imaginary interviewErasmus · 1466 — 1536
Basel, a winter morning in the house on Nadelberg. The old humanist receives us bundled in furs, a black bonnet pulled down to his eyebrows, his goose quill still wet near the inkwell. Froben's…
Imaginary interviewDenis Diderot · 1713 — 1784
Paris, an evening in winter 1782. In a cluttered apartment filled with books and proofs in the Saint-Germain district, an old man in a threadbare dressing gown receives us, his face still lively…
Imaginary interviewGeorge Boole · 1815 — 1864
Cork, autumn 1864. In the study of a Georgian house in Ballintemple, an oil lamp illuminates pages blackened with symbols. George Boole, in a dark frock coat and high collar, sets down his chalk to…
Imaginary interviewClaude Lévi-Strauss · 1908 — 2009
Autumn 2008. In his office at the Collège de France, lined with books up to the ceiling and a few masks from the American Northwest coast, a nearly hundred-year-old man receives visitors, his…
Imaginary interviewNefertiti · 1369 av. J.-C. — 1329 av. J.-C.
At dusk, in the open courtyard of the North Palace of Akhetaten, the disk of Aten tilts toward the horizon. The Great Royal Wife sets down her sistrum, dismisses her servants, and agrees to answer,…
Imaginary interviewJonas · 822 av. J.-C. — 719 av. J.-C.
On the shore where the great fish spat him out, an exhausted man, his clothes still stiff with salt, agrees to speak. Behind him, the dusty road leads back up to Nineveh; before him, the sea he tried…
Imaginary interviewKaguya-hime
One full moon night on the heights of Heian-kyō, in a dwelling that wealth has embellished without making it less foreign to its inhabitant. Behind a slatted bamboo blind, a silhouette in pale silk…
Imaginary interviewMechthild of Magdeburg · 1207 — 1282
Helfta, in Saxony, on a winter evening in the 13th century. In a cell lit by a single candle, an old woman almost blind sits near her desk, where the pages of her great book still lie. Mechtilde of…
Imaginary interviewPerceval
Deep in a forest of Brittany, where paths vanish under ferns, a knight with a tarnished helm stopped near a spring. His shield bears arms no herald could name. He agrees to speak, in a low voice, as…
Imaginary interviewHarriet Taylor Mill · 1807 — 1858
Autumn 1857. The villa at Walton-on-Thames smells of cold coal and ink. Harriet Taylor Mill receives us in a drawing room with dark woodwork, a shawl over her shoulders, a cough contained behind her…
Imaginary interviewJoan of Arc · 1412 — 1431
Spring 1429. Under a tent pitched not far from the Loire, by the flicker of a candle, a young woman of seventeen removes her iron gauntlets. Between two war councils, in a low voice, she agrees to…
Imaginary interviewMichel de Montaigne · 1533 — 1592
Autumn 1588. The Essays have just been reissued, augmented by a third book, and their author has withdrawn to his château in Périgord. We find him at the very top of his round tower, among his books…
Imaginary interviewLouis IX (Saint Louis) · 1214 — 1270
Vincennes, a spring morning. Beneath the foliage of a great oak, a man in a gray wool robe listens to the complaints of the humble before turning to his visitor. This is Louis, ninth of that name,…
Imaginary interviewJob
On the cracked soil of the land of Uz, where flocks once raised dust to the horizon, a man sits among ashes. His sores have dried, his fortune has returned, but his eyes bear the trace of a struggle…
Imaginary interviewIsaac Newton · 1643 — 1727
April 1726, in a house in Kensington where the fire crackles against the dampness of London. Sir Isaac Newton, octogenarian with still-sharp eyes, sets down an ink-stained goose quill and agrees to…
Imaginary interviewHegel · 1770 — 1831
Berlin, autumn 1830. In a study lined with books and manuscripts, not far from the university whose rector he has just been elected, a man in a black frock coat sets down his quill. Rhine wine waits…
Imaginary interviewGilgamesh
On the ramparts of Uruk, at dusk, where the sun-dried brick still holds the day's warmth, a man watches the river. He is twice as tall as his guards, his gaze burdened with something that resembles…
Imaginary interviewChrétien de Troyes · 1135 — 1181
It is in Troyes, on a winter evening when candles light the great hall of the court of Marie of Champagne, that we meet the master clerk. The vielle has fallen silent, the lords have returned to…
Imaginary interviewTheodora · 497 — 548
Beneath the gilded vaults of the Great Palace of Constantinople, where the stretched purple filters the light of the Sea of Marmara, the empress receives visitors, seated near a still-damp mosaic.…
Imaginary interviewMary Wollstonecraft · 1759 — 1797
London, autumn 1796. In a small lodging in Somers Town cluttered with annotated books and papers, a goose quill dries at the edge of an inkwell. Mary Wollstonecraft, a woolen shawl over her…
Imaginary interviewLyudmila Pavlichenko · 1916 — 1974
Moscow, winter 1965. In a modest apartment piled with staff reports and yellowed newspaper clippings, a forty-nine-year-old woman pours black tea. She has placed on the table, like a familiar object,…
Imaginary interviewHypatia of Alexandria · vers 355/370 — 415
Alexandria, an afternoon in the early 5th century. In the courtyard of a large peristyle house, between an armillary sphere and unrolled papyrus scrolls, a woman clad in the rough philosopher's cloak…
Imaginary interviewGeorgia O'Keeffe · 1887 — 1986
June 1977. The adobe house in Abiquiú smells of sun-baked earth; on a windowsill framing the desert like a picture, white bones and stones are arranged like sculptures. Georgia O'Keeffe, ninety years…
Imaginary interviewÉlisabeth Vigée Le Brun · 1755 — 1842
Paris, a spring morning, in the high-windowed studio on the rue du Gros-Chenet. The light falls just right—the light she waits for each day for her flesh tones; on the easel a barely sketched…
Imaginary interviewCamille Claudel · 1864 — 1943
Avignon, summer 1935. Behind the walls of the Montdevergues asylum, in a courtyard where the light falls harshly, a seventy-year-old woman looks at her hands. She has not modeled any clay for…
Imaginary interviewJason
On a beach in Thessaly, in the shadow of a ship's carcass bleached by salt, an aging man agrees to speak. He was the most illustrious of captains, the one who brought back the Golden Fleece and the…
Imaginary interviewGeorg Ohm · 1789 — 1854
Munich, winter 1853. In a modest study adjoining the university, an old man puts copper wires into a wooden box. He has finally obtained the chair he waited his whole life for, and agrees to look…
Imaginary interviewGustave Flaubert · 1821 — 1880
Croisset, an autumn evening. The Seine carries its barges under the windows of the pavilion, and in the upstairs study, wrapped in a vast dressing gown, the Norman hermit pokes at his pipe. He agrees…
Imaginary interviewJean Monnet · 1888 — 1979
Forest of Rambouillet, late afternoon in spring. In the low house of Houjarray, a man over eighty welcomes us around a simple table, his handwritten notes piled near a lamp. His voice is calm, almost…
Imaginary interviewHomer · 900 av. J.-C. — 800 av. J.-C.
It was at the evening banquet, in the smoky great hall of an Ionian lord, that we found him. The old man tunes his phorminx while the guests already call for the wrath of Achilles. He agrees to set…
Imaginary interviewLiliuokalani · 1838 — 1917
Honolulu, a late afternoon in 1916. On the veranda of Washington Place, an elderly lady in a dark dress receives us, a feather fan on her lap and a notebook of sheet music within reach. The kingdom…
Imaginary interviewEmily Dickinson · 1830 — 1886
Amherst, Massachusetts, late spring afternoon. The light falls slantwise on the Homestead garden, and a first-floor door remains ajar, just enough for a voice to pass without a face appearing. It is…
Imaginary interviewHammurabi · 1809 av. J.-C. — 1749 av. J.-C.
Babylon, end of reign. In an audience hall of mud-brick walls thickened by the heat, the king receives, a cup of barley beer within reach. Before him, erected, the tall black diorite stele that the…
Imaginary interviewImmanuel Kant · 1724 — 1804
Königsberg, a gray afternoon in the year 1798. The philosopher has just returned from his walk, cane still in hand, and receives us in his book-lined study where the inkwell awaits. The conversation…
Imaginary interviewJulius Caesar · 99 av. J.-C. — 43 av. J.-C.
Rome, early 44 BCE. In a house on the Palatine, by the light of oil lamps, a man is still dictating while the city sleeps — his toga thrown over his shoulder, a laurel crown placed near the wax…
Imaginary interviewIgnatius of Loyola · 1491 — 1556
Rome, summer 1556. In a narrow cell adjacent to the church of Santa Maria della Strada, an old man with a worn complexion receives his visitor between two bundles of letters from the Indies. His…
Imaginary interviewGabriela Mistral · 1889 — 1957
Elqui Valley, one evening of the austral winter. On the terrace of a low house in Vicuña, a woman in a dark shawl watches the mountains turn violet. She has placed her notebook on her knees, as every…
Imaginary interviewGeorges Clemenceau · 1841 — 1929
Rue Franklin, an autumn morning in 1928. The apartment smells of black coffee and crumpled newspaper. The old man in gray gloves receives us between two piles of books, sharp-eyed, his retort already…
Imaginary interviewFontenelle · 1657 — 1757
Paris, winter 1740. The perpetual secretary has just left his post after forty-two years of service; we find him in his study on rue Saint-Honoré, among his registers and a dusty celestial globe. At…
Imaginary interviewLoki
Under the roots of the world, where the cold of Niflheim oozes between the stones, a hoarse voice answers the falling drops. Loki is there, stretched out, bound, his face turned toward the shadows.…
Imaginary interviewGandhi · 1869 — 1948
At the edge of the Sabarmati Ashram, in the dusty light of a dry-season morning, a slight man wrapped in a simple dhoti spins cotton without looking up. The spinning wheel creaks, disciples hum a…
Imaginary interviewEmmy Noether · 1882 — 1935
Göttingen, a spring afternoon. In an apartment cluttered with books and handwritten notebooks, a woman with round spectacles welcomes us, a piece of chalk still between her fingers. Emmy Noether…
Imaginary interviewClarice Lispector · 1920 — 1977
Rio de Janeiro, an evening in the late 1960s. In her apartment in Leme, overlooking the sea at Copacabana, Clarice Lispector receives a visitor between wisps of cigarette smoke, the typewriter still…
Imaginary interviewDonna Strickland · 1959 — ?
October 2018, University of Waterloo. In an office cluttered with reprints and optical diagrams, a physicist with a measured voice receives us a few days after the announcement that turned her life…
Imaginary interviewLouis XIV · 1638 — 1715
Versailles, a winter evening in 1709. The king, already old, receives us in his study, the fire crackling behind him, the park frozen under frost beyond the windows. He speaks slowly, the measured…
Imaginary interviewFrancis I · 1494 — 1547
Gallery of Francis I, Château de Fontainebleau, an autumn evening. Amid the stuccoes of Primaticcio, the king has just returned from the hunt, still booted, his beret powdered with dust. He agrees to…
Imaginary interviewEpictetus · 50 — 138
Nicopolis, in Epirus, at dusk on an autumn day. In a house without a lock, furnished with a mat and a lamp, a lame old man receives us, leaning on his staff. He was a slave; he became the master to…
Imaginary interviewAlfred Dreyfus · 1859 — 1935
Paris, early 1930s. In a discreet apartment, an old man with an officer's bearing receives a visitor, straight as a ramrod despite his age. His voice is calm, almost administrative, but beneath the…
Imaginary interviewLakshmi Bai · 1828 — 1858
Jhansi, a night in March 1858. The cannons of General Hugh Rose rumble in the distance as the Rani receives us in a low chamber of the fort, lit by a single oil lamp. She already wears the cavalry…
Imaginary interviewEtty Hillesum · 1914 — 1943
Amsterdam, autumn 1942. In a room on Gabriël Metsustraat cluttered with books and school notebooks, a twenty-eight-year-old woman receives us, her fountain pen still in hand. Outside, the Occupation…
Imaginary interviewFreya Stark · 1893 — 1993
Asolo, a terrace overlooking the hills of Veneto, on a late summer afternoon. In Casa Freia, Persian rugs and copper lanterns brought back from Yemen sit alongside annotated maps pinned to the wall.…
Imaginary interviewJane Austen · 1775 — 1817
Chawton, in Hampshire, an autumn morning. The pianoforte has just fallen silent, and one can guess, on the little drop-front desk near the sitting-room window, a few sheets turned over. Jane Austen,…
Imaginary interviewColette · 1873 — 1954
A gray afternoon in 1950, rue de Beaujolais. On the first floor of the Palais-Royal, an old woman with a mop of bluish hair receives from a wide sofa pushed against the window, a blanket over her…
Imaginary interviewElizabeth Anscombe · 1919 — 2001
Cambridge, an autumn afternoon in 1985. In a cluttered office smelling of stale tobacco, a woman with a monocle welcomes us, a half-smoked cigar between her fingers. She speaks little but strikes…
Imaginary interviewFlora Tristan · 1803 — 1844
Bordeaux, October 1844. In a boarding-house room with drawn curtains, a woman of forty-one, her complexion hollowed by fever and the road, rests between two stacks of papers. She has agreed to answer…
Imaginary interviewEdgar Allan Poe · 1809 — 1849
October 1845. In the cramped office of the Broadway Journal in New York, the lamp still smokes. Edgar Allan Poe receives us between two proof sheets, his dark collar impeccable despite the poverty of…
Imaginary interviewAphrodite
On the heights of Paphos, where the salt of the sea mingles with the incense of myrtle, the goddess receives us in the cool shade of her sanctuary. The doves circle around the white marble columns.…
Imaginary interviewClovis · 466 — 511
Paris, around the year 510. In a hall of the ancient Palace of the Thermae, where Roman walls now mingle with Frankish tapestries and trophies, the old King of the Franks receives us. His long hair,…
Imaginary interviewDolores Huerta · 1930 — ?
San Joaquin Valley, late afternoon. The dust from the grape fields settles over the rows of vines as a small woman, a scarf in her hair, packs a megaphone into the trunk of an old car. Dolores Huerta…
Imaginary interviewKing Arthur
Camelot, at the hour when the torches in the great hall cast their last glimmers upon the deserted Round Table. The king has remained alone, his heavy sword laid across his knees, his gaze turned…
Imaginary interviewDaedalus and Icarus
It is in Sicily, at the court of King Cocalus, that tradition allows us to approach the old craftsman. Daedalus sits near a workbench covered in bronze dust, his tools arranged like relics. And when…
Imaginary interviewDionysus
On the slopes of Mount Nysa, as dusk thickens the shadow of the vines, a man with an ivy crown receives us, a kylix in hand, panthers lying at his feet. His voice is both soft and unsettling, like…
Imaginary interviewCaracalla · 188 — 217
April 217. Somewhere in Mesopotamia, between Edessa and Carrhae, the imperial tent smells of leather, dust, and weapon oil. Caracalla receives without ceremony, his Gallic cloak on his shoulders…
Imaginary interviewChampollion · 1790 — 1832
Paris, winter 1831. In a study at the Collège de France, still brand new, where the first chair of Egyptology has just been created for him, a man whose complexion is already marked by fever receives…
Imaginary interviewFranklin D. Roosevelt · 1882 — 1945
April 1944. In the Oval Office, draped with heavy curtains, a man in a dark suit welcomes us from his chair, a long cigarette holder tilted between his fingers. The CBS radio sleeps in a corner, a…
Imaginary interviewCharlie Chaplin · 1889 — 1977
June 1972. The sun is setting over Lake Geneva, and from the terrace of the Manoir de Ban, in Corsier-sur-Vevey, an old man with white hair gazes silently at the Alps. He has just returned from…
Imaginary interviewFrançois Rabelais · 1500 — 1553
Meudon, autumn 1552. The parish priest has just set down his pen after the Quart Livre has come off the press; a fire of vine clippings crackles, a bottle of Touraine wine waits on the table.…
Imaginary interviewAntoine de Saint-Exupéry · 1900 — 1944
Summer 1944, on an Allied airbase in the Mediterranean. Between two reconnaissance missions, a tall man struggles to extract himself from a cockpit, his face gaunt, his gaze already back in the sky.…
Imaginary interviewArtemis
You do not meet Artemis in a palace, but at the edge, where the forest devours the daylight. She stopped at the edge of a clearing on Mount Taygetus, her bow still on her shoulder, her hounds panting…
Imaginary interviewCarl von Linnaeus · 1707 — 1778
Summer 1758, at Hammarby, his country estate a few versts from Uppsala. The old naturalist receives us between flowerbeds, a magnifying glass hanging from his neck, still dressed in his field…
Imaginary interviewClaude Monet · 1840 — 1926
Giverny, a morning in September 1925. The master receives us under the veranda, his hands still stained with blue, his gaze turned toward the pond where his water lilies float. White beard, slow…
Imaginary interviewHephaestus
Beneath Mount Etna, where magma serves as a furnace, the heat makes the air tremble. The god sets down his hammer on a still-red anvil, wipes the soot from his brow, and agrees to speak — without…
Imaginary interviewFrancis Ponge · 1899 — 1988
Bar-sur-Loup, late 1980s. In a Provençal house where the olive tree casts its shadows against the shutters, a man of nearly ninety welcomes us, an open notebook and a dictionary within reach. Francis…
Imaginary interviewConstantine I · 272 — 337
The Great Palace of Constantinople, an evening in the year 336. From the imperial box, the murmur of the Hippodrome emptying can still be heard. The emperor Constantine, his diadem removed for the…
Imaginary interviewEva Perón · 1919 — 1952
Buenos Aires, one morning in 1951, long before dawn. In her office at the Ministry of Labor, where union delegations and mothers from the provinces are already crowding in, a woman with a platinum…
Imaginary interviewWilliam the Conqueror · 1028 — 1087
Caen, in the half-light of the still-unfinished Abbaye-aux-Hommes, the old king receives visitors between councils. His hands resting on the pommel of his sword, he speaks in a slow voice, where the…
Imaginary interviewCorazón Aquino · 1933 — 2009
Manila, February 1992. In the private apartments of Malacañang Palace, which she never wanted to inhabit like a queen, Corazón Aquino receives visitors in a pale yellow dress, a rosary between her…
Imaginary interviewBuffon · 1707 — 1788
October 1782. The tower of Montbard rises above the terraced gardens the master himself designed; inside, in the silence of a study without books, an old man in a dressing gown lays down his quill.…
Imaginary interviewDavid · 1038 av. J.-C. — 968 av. J.-C.
On the height of Zion, in the cool of the evening, the king of Israel receives guests at the threshold of his stone palace. A lyre rests against the wall, the Ark is only a few paces away. David, his…
Imaginary interviewCharles Perrault · 1628 — 1703
Paris, one winter evening in 1700. In his study on rue de l'Arbre-Sec, a stone's throw from the Louvre, Charles Perrault receives us with his wig slightly askew, a bound collection resting near the…
Imaginary interviewAssia Djebar · 1936 — 2015
Manhattan, a winter morning, in a Greenwich Village apartment where shelves overflow with manuscripts and an old tape recorder still lingers. Assia Djebar receives us between two classes at the…
Imaginary interviewMichelangelo · 1475 — 1564
Rome, winter 1560. In a workshop cluttered with marble blocks and sketches, lit by a candle stuck on a cardboard hat, an old man of eighty-five rests his chisel for a moment. White dust covers his…
Imaginary interviewCharles Baudelaire · 1821 — 1867
Brussels, winter 1865. In a furnished hotel room that smells of cold coffee and tobacco, Charles Baudelaire receives, sitting very upright, glove in hand, as if posing for a portrait. The…
Imaginary interviewClaude Debussy · 1862 — 1918
Avenue du Bois-de-Boulogne, an autumn evening in 1917. In a drawing room hung with Japanese prints, where the Blüthner piano gleams under the lamp, Claude Debussy receives a visitor, an eternal…
Imaginary interviewLancelot du Lac
Dusk falls on the ramparts of Joyous Gard, and in the great deserted hall a knight still keeps watch, his helmet set by the hearth. He agrees to speak in a low voice, as one confesses a fault too…
Imaginary interviewCharles de Gaulle · 1890 — 1970
Autumn 1969. At La Boisserie, in the silence of the Haute-Marne prairies, a seventy-nine-year-old man has just left power for the last time. General Charles de Gaulle receives in his study…
Imaginary interviewAverroes · 1126 — 1198
Cordoba, under the reign of the Almohads. In a house nestled around a patio planted with orange trees, the grand qadi receives between two hearings, a copper oil lamp already watching over the pile…
Imaginary interviewBlaise Pascal · 1623 — 1662
Paris, winter 1661. In a Left Bank study cluttered with papers, a copper machine, and glass tubes, a man with a face hollowed by pain receives us between bouts of fever. He is thirty-eight years old…
Imaginary interviewAntonio Vivaldi · 1678 — 1741
Venice, one morning in 1740, on the Riva degli Schiavoni, a stone's throw from the Ospedale della Pietà. The trunks are nearly packed: the old master is about to leave for Vienna. Between two bundles…
Imaginary interviewGrace Hopper · 1906 — 1992
Washington D.C., one evening in 1986. Grace Hopper has just taken off her US Navy uniform after more than forty years of service. In her office, where technical reports and coils of copper wire pile…
Imaginary interviewAlan Turing · 1912 — 1954
Manchester, winter 1953. In an office cluttered with papers covered in equations and circuit diagrams, a man in a crumpled tweed jacket receives us, still out of breath from a morning run. Alan…
Imaginary interviewChien-Shiung Wu · 1912 — 1997
Manhattan, a winter evening in 1975. In an apartment near Columbia University, shelves bend under physics journals and a few Chinese bronzes keep watch in the dim light. Chien-Shiung Wu, a cup of…
Imaginary interviewBerthe Morisot · 1841 — 1895
Mézy-sur-Seine, a summer morning in 1893. The garden smells of cut grass and turpentine. Berthe Morisot sets down her brush, wipes her fingers stained with pearly white, and agrees to speak in a low…
Imaginary interviewCatherine de Medici · 1519 — 1589
January 1589, Château de Blois. The cold bites the stones and the queen mother, dressed in her eternal mourning, receives in a room hung with tapestries, an astrolabe placed near her dispatches.…
Imaginary interviewEleanor of Aquitaine · 1124 — 1204
Fontevraud, in the year of grace 1203. In the dimness of the abbey where she has chosen to end her days, an old lady of nearly eighty receives her visitor, her back straight despite her age. Queen…
Imaginary interviewCúchulainn
At the edge of the plain of Muirthemne, where chariots leave their ruts in the frozen mud, a young warrior with flaming hair sharpens his blade near a ford. He says his name is Cúchulainn, champion…
Imaginary interviewAlexandra David-Néel · 1868 — 1969
Digne-les-Bains, a winter morning in the 1950s. In the house she named Samten Dzong, the "fortress of meditation," a tiny old woman receives visitors amid piles of Tibetan manuscripts and trunks…
Imaginary interviewAntigone
Thebes, before dawn. In a silent courtyard of the Cadmea palace, a young woman with hands still stained with earth agrees to answer a few questions. She already knows what awaits her; yet her voice…
Imaginary interviewAugustus · 62 av. J.-C. — 14
Rome, year 12 of our era. On the Palatine hill, in a brick house that could pass for an ordinary senator's, an old man receives, dressed in a white toga spun by his wife. The evening light falls on a…
Imaginary interviewCharles VII · 1403 — 1461
Mehun-sur-Yèvre, winter 1460. In a room hung with tapestries where a huge fireplace crackles, King Charles VII receives visitors, his face marked by anxiety. Outside flows the Yèvre; inside, a man…
Imaginary interviewArthur Rimbaud · 1854 — 1891
Harar, one evening in 1885. In a stone house in the old fortified city, a thirty-year-old man keeps his accounts by lamplight, his merchant's scale stored near the trunks. Nothing suggests that he…
Imaginary interviewAres
On Mount Olympus, away from the palace where the twelve feast, the god of war wipes the dried blood from his spear. He agrees to speak, but his gaze remains fixed on the plain of mortals, where…
Imaginary interviewAmbroise Paré · 1510 — 1590
Paris, a winter evening in 1585. In his lodgings near the court, cluttered with anatomical plates and instruments of polished iron, the old king's surgeon receives us, a notebook of observations…
Imaginary interviewBartolomé de las Casas · 1484 — 1566
Madrid, winter 1566. At the Dominican convent of Atocha, a ninety-two-year-old man still receives, despite his fatigue, those who wish to hear him. His cell smells of ink and wax; on the lectern,…
Imaginary interviewAttila · 500 — 453
Pannonian Plain, end of a 5th-century summer. Beneath a polished wooden palisade, at the heart of a camp that looks like a city without stone, the king of the Huns receives, seated on a carpet.…
Imaginary interviewAlfred Wegener · 1880 — 1930
Winter 1929, University of Graz. In an office cluttered with world maps pinned to the walls and leather-bound notebooks, a man with clear eyes, already marked by polar winds, prepares a new…
Imaginary interviewCatherine II of Russia · 1729 — 1796
St. Petersburg, winter. In a study adjoining the Hermitage, where the Rembrandt canvases she has just acquired are piled up, the Empress of All the Russias receives us after her morning coffee,…
Imaginary interviewAlbert Camus · 1913 — 1960
Lourmarin, late autumn 1959. In a stone house in the Luberon where the wind rustles the olive trees, a man with a lined face receives a visitor, raincoat thrown over a chair, cigarette between his…
Imaginary interviewBenazir Bhutto · 1953 — 2007
Karachi, late 2007. The white dupatta on her hair, Benazir Bhutto receives us in a spartan room still strewn with campaign files and handwritten notes in Urdu. The crowd from her return from exile…
Imaginary interviewAnnie Ernaux · 1940 — ?
It is in a modest house in the new town of Cergy-Pontoise, near the Val-d'Oise, that Annie Ernaux receives us, crossed-out notebooks laid on the table. Her voice is calm, almost clinical, without any…
Imaginary interviewBeaumarchais · 1732 — 1799
Spring 1788. We are received in the grand mansion Beaumarchais has just completed on the Rue du Pas-de-la-Mule, directly across from the Bastille, amid gardens and the music room where a harp still…
Imaginary interviewChe Guevara · 1928 — 1967
Sierra Maestra, one evening in the late 1950s. Under a shelter of branches, a kerosene lamp lights a short-breathed man, beret tilted, a steaming mate within reach and a notebook open on his knees.…
Imaginary interviewWilliam Tell
It was in a wooden inn in Altdorf, at the foot of the Alps of Uri, that we met the archer whose name spans the centuries. Outside, Lake Lucerne beats against the rocks; inside, the man sets his…
Imaginary interviewArchimedes · 286 av. J.-C. — 211 av. J.-C.
Syracuse, late summer afternoon. The oblique light strikes the limestone walls of the island of Ortygia, and on the floor of a workshop cluttered with pulleys, tablets, and figures traced in the ash,…
Imaginary interviewAlexis de Tocqueville · 1805 — 1859
Cannes, winter 1858. In a villa bathed in light too gentle for a man who knows he is ill, Alexis de Tocqueville receives visitors, a shawl over his shoulders and scattered sheets on his table. He…
Imaginary interviewApollo
On the slopes of Parnassus, where the smoke of offerings still rises toward the sky of Delphi, the archer god agrees to answer. He holds his lyre against him, the laurel crown tilted on his brow. His…
Imaginary interviewAesop · 619 av. J.-C. — 563 av. J.-C.
On the agora of Samos, at the hour when merchants fold up their stalls, a man with a hunched back and a rough face leans on a walking stick. They call him Aesop, the freedman of Iadmon, he whose…
Imaginary interviewAda Lovelace · 1815 — 1852
London, a winter afternoon in 1843. In her Mayfair study, cluttered with sheets covered in symbolic notation, the Countess of Lovelace has just completed her famous Notes. The pen still wet, she…
Imaginary interviewFreya
Twilight falls on Folkvangr, and the golden fields rustle with the footsteps of warriors who have just arrived. Seated in her chariot, two large cats curled at her feet, Freyja agrees to speak — not…
Imaginary interviewCicero · 106 av. J.-C. — 42 av. J.-C.
Late summer on the hills of Tusculum. In the villa where he has taken refuge to write, between two papyrus rolls, a man with tired features agrees to receive visitors; outside, Rome still rumbles.…
Imaginary interviewDanton · 1759 — 1794
Paris, late winter 1794. In an apartment on the Cour du Commerce-Saint-André, where the fire still crackles, a massive man with a scarred face receives us between two sessions of the Convention.…
Imaginary interviewCixi · 1835 — 1908
Autumn 1908, at the Summer Palace. Light fades over Kunming Lake, and the Empress Dowager Cixi, weakened but still sharp-eyed, receives behind a yellow silk screen. She is seventy-two years old, has…
Imaginary interviewFrançoise de Graffigny · 1695 — 1758
Paris, winter 1757. In a modest apartment on Rue Saint-Hyacinthe, cluttered with books and papers, a sixty-two-year-old woman receives us near a feeble fire, a writing desk on her lap. The pen has…
Imaginary interviewEdith Stein · 1891 — 1942
Carmel of Echt, an afternoon in the summer of 1942. Behind the grille of the parlor, a nun with a peaceful face places a stack of still-damp pages on the table. Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross —…
Imaginary interviewCharlotte Brontë · 1816 — 1855
January 1854. The wind off the Pennines rattles the windows of Haworth parsonage, and the fire in the sitting room struggles to warm the stone. A small woman in a dark wool dress, her face grave and…
Imaginary interviewÉtienne de La Boétie · 1530 — 1563
Bordeaux, an evening in the year 1562. In a study cluttered with Greek editions and parliamentary records, a young magistrate of thirty-two closes a vellum-bound manuscript and listens to the sound…
Imaginary interviewAlfred de Musset · 1810 — 1857
Paris, one evening in the late 1830s. In a Latin Quarter apartment where the oil lamp still smokes, Alfred de Musset receives a visitor, his frock coat undone, a glass within reach. He speaks…
Imaginary interviewAuguste Rodin · 1840 — 1917
Meudon, a winter morning in 1913. The Villa des Brillants smells of wet clay and fresh plaster; outside, the fog drowns the Seine valley. The master, stained smock and gray beard, turns a turntable…
Imaginary interviewAntoine de Lavoisier · 1743 — 1794
Paris, one winter evening around 1788. We are received in the apartment at the Arsenal, where the smell of mercury mingles with that of candle wax. Between a scale under a glass dome and ledgers…
Imaginary interviewAnansi
Under a kapok tree in the Ashanti Region, at the hour when storytellers light the fire, a thin voice descends along an invisible thread. The spider Anansi has slid down to ear level, eight legs…
Imaginary interviewBaruch Spinoza · 1632 — 1677
The Hague, winter 1676. In a rented room on the Paviljoensgracht, where the smell of polished glass mingles with that of tobacco, a thin man sets down his grinding lathe to receive us. He speaks…
Imaginary interviewBarbara McClintock · 1902 — 1992
Summer 1983, a few weeks after the announcement from Stockholm. Barbara McClintock receives visitors in her small office at Cold Spring Harbor, window open onto the cornfields she has walked for…
Imaginary interviewAmaterasu
One does not meet a sun goddess; one waits for her to deign to appear. It is at dawn, on the esplanade of white pebbles of the Grand Shrine of Ise, amid the scent of freshly cut cypress wood, that…
Imaginary interviewCharlemagne · 742 — 814
Aachen, a winter evening. The steam from the hot springs still rises from the baths while the emperor, a marten fur cloak over his shoulders, returns from the hunt. In the great hall of the palace, a…
Imaginary interviewAlexander the Great · 355 av. J.-C. — 322 av. J.-C.
Babylon, summer 323 BCE. Under the royal tent pitched near Nebuchadnezzar's palace, a thirty-two-year-old man receives visitors, the diadem still tied on his brow, the Iliad within reach. The fever…
Imaginary interviewAdam and Eve
The Garden of Eden, in the gentle hour when light has no name yet. Under the tree that stands in the middle of the orchard, a man and a woman stand, still close to the hand that shaped them. They…
Imaginary interviewAlbert Einstein · 1879 — 1955
Princeton, late winter 1955. In an office cluttered with papers where a violin lies, an old man with wild white hair receives his visitor without a tie, his pipe unlit in his hand. The conversation,…
Imaginary interviewAimé Césaire · 1913 — 2008
Fort-de-France, late morning. Heat rises from the bay while, in a book-cluttered office where a fan stirs the Caribbean air, a man sorts a bundle of municipal correspondence. Aimé Césaire, the poet…
Imaginary interviewAnne Frank · 1929 — 1945
Amsterdam, summer 1944. At the back of a commercial building at 263 Prinsengracht, behind a bookcase that swings on its hinges, a fifteen-year-old girl receives us in the dimness of a room with…
Imaginary interviewAbbé Prévost · 1697 — 1763
Chantilly, a gray winter morning in 1762. In a modest lodging lined with books, an old man in a black cassock sets down his quill beside a porcelain inkwell. The Abbé Prévost, a novelist whom all…
Imaginary interviewAung San Suu Kyi · 1945 — ?
A humid late afternoon on the shores of Inya Lake, in Rangoon. Behind the rusty gate of 54 University Avenue, a woman with flowers in her hair receives, for the duration of an imaginary conversation,…
Imaginary interviewEl Cid
Valencia, the year 1097. Under the vaults of a palace wrested from the Almoravids, a man with a face tanned by twenty years of campaigns receives the interviewer between war councils. Tizona rests…
Imaginary interviewAbraham Lincoln · 1809 — 1865
Washington, late winter 1865. Snow is melting on the lawns of the White House and the war, at last, seems to be drawing to a close. In an office cluttered with maps and telegraph dispatches, a tall,…
Imaginary interviewAlexandre Dumas · 1802 — 1870
Port-Marly, an afternoon in 1847. The Château de Monte-Cristo still smells of fresh plaster and new stone. Alexandre Dumas receives us in a study cluttered with sheets, his pen still wet, a valet…
Imaginary interviewAchilles
The sun sets over the plain of Troy. Under a vast tent where bronze weapons gleam, a warrior with blazing eyes sharpens his spear. He agrees to speak, he whom the Achaeans call the swiftest, the most…
Imaginary interviewSeneca · 4 av. J.-C. — 65
We meet Seneca in the columned study of his Rome townhouse on a still spring afternoon — wax tablets, papyrus scrolls, and a clay oil lamp arranged across a cedar table. He has been retired from…
Imaginary interviewPerseus
We meet Perseus not in a palace hall but at the edge of the sea, at the rocky coastline of Ethiopia, where salt air still carries — if you listen — the faint echo of chains against stone. He arrives…
Imaginary interviewMarie Curie · 1867 — 1934
We meet Marie Curie in the autumn of 1923, in her spare office at the Institut Curie on the rue d'Ulm in Paris — the research center she founded and has directed for nearly a decade. A stack of…
Imaginary interviewMansa Musa · 1280 — 1337
We meet Mansa Moussa in the great courtyard of the Djinguereber Mosque in Timbuktu, its banco walls still faintly warm from the Saharan afternoon. Around us, scholars in white robes pass between…
Imaginary interviewLeonardo da Vinci · 1452 — 1519
We meet Leonardo da Vinci in the early winter of 1517, at the Clos Lucé — the stone manor house near Amboise that King François has placed at his disposal. He is sixty-five, his silver-white beard…
Imaginary interviewLaozi · vers VIe siècle av. J.-C.
We find him in the dim corridors of the Zhou royal library at Luoyi — city of ceremony, city of slow dissolution — seated beside a low table, a calligraphy brush resting between two fingers and a…
Imaginary interviewJoséphine Baker · 1906 — 1975
We meet Joséphine Baker in the small apartment on the Rock of Monaco offered to her by Princess Grace — autumn 1974, a few weeks after her triumphant return to the Bobino stage in Paris, where the…
Imaginary interviewJohann Sebastian Bach · 1685 — 1750
We meet Johann Sebastian Bach in his study at the Thomasschule in Leipzig, on an October afternoon in 1742. The room smells of candlewax and fresh ink; a half-finished manuscript lies open on the…
Imaginary interviewJean Jaurès · 1859 — 1914
We meet Jean Jaurès in the late spring of 1914, in the editorial offices of L'Humanité on the rue du Croissant in Paris. Afternoon light filters through windows half-obscured by paper; he writes…
Imaginary interviewHildegard of Bingen · 1098 — 1179
We meet Hildegard at the monastery of Rupertsberg, perched above the confluence of the Rhine and the Nahe, in the late autumn of 1178 — weeks after an archiepiscopal interdict fell on her community,…
Imaginary interviewÉmilie du Châtelet · 1706 — 1749
We meet the Marquise du Châtelet in her private study at the Château de Cirey-sur-Blaise in 1748 — a room where prisms and clay-dusted trays share space with towers of annotated Latin manuscripts and…
Imaginary interviewCleopatra · 68 av. J.-C. — 29 av. J.-C.
We receive her in the great audience hall of the Brucheion palace, overlooking Alexandria's eastern harbor where the flame of Pharos burns day and night. She wears a diadem of gold and lapis-lazuli,…
Imaginary interviewCharles Darwin · 1809 — 1882
We find Charles Darwin in the book-lined study of Down House on a grey November afternoon in 1881, the year his final volume on earthworms goes to press. Specimen jars stand along the shelves; a…
Imaginary interviewAristotle · 460 av. J.-C. — 401 av. J.-C.
We find Aristotle at Chalcis, on the island of Euboea, in the autumn of 322 BC — driven from Athens by an accusation of impiety, he receives visitors in a borrowed room overlooking the Euripus…
Imaginary interviewAnubis
We meet at the threshold of the Hall of Two Truths — that antechamber where the newly dead pause before the scales are set and the feather of Maat is brought forward. Anubis does not sit; those who…
Imaginary interviewVoltaire · 1694 — 1778
We meet him at his writing table in the Château de Ferney, a few miles from the Swiss border, on a winter afternoon in the early 1770s. The room smells of coffee and ink; a half-finished letter lies…
Imaginary interviewConfucius · 550 av. J.-C. — 478 av. J.-C.
We find Confucius in the courtyard of his house at Qufu, on a late autumn afternoon — the light already pale, a bundle of jiandu bamboo strips spread across his knees. He has been annotating the…
Imaginary interviewAthena
We find her on the Acropolis at first light, before the city below has roused itself from sleep. The great chryselephantine statue within the Parthenon — gold, ivory, and twelve meters tall — is the…
Imaginary interviewFrida Kahlo · 1907 — 1954
We meet Frida Kahlo in the summer of 1954, in the studio adjoining the Casa Azul — the cobalt-blue house in Coyoacán where she was born and has spent most of her life. She is propped against the…