MAURA DALY
413
published several very successful books, do you still see your work
as an author the same way?
MT:
Let's say that formerly I had material concerns which I no
longer have , and I also had worries about a public that I don't
have anymore. So, now I can really say what I want to - no mat–
ter to whom, even to the Pope or to the President of the Republic ;
they would hesitate to throw me out the door!
MD:
Finally, the next-to-last question: in which philosophical cur–
rent would you place yourself?
MT:
In what philosophical current would I place myself? But I
abandoned philosophy twenty-five years ago! I no longer have a
philosophical leaning.
MD:
The last question : Sartre,
in
his autobiography,
The Words',
says
that for him language is a kind of absolute. Do you agree?
MT:
He is right. A novel is a thing that is produced with words, and
words have a value in themselves . Absolute means cut off from
the rest, doesn't it? And it is a verbal construction.
MD:
I would say that for Sartre it is not absolutely true, but that
language acquires a transcendent aspect.
MT:
You are right.
It
is much truer of other writers; it is actually
less true of Sartre.
EDNA M. PHILLIPS
WHO WAS WITH US
FROM THE BEGINNING
