Louis de Bernières’ afternoon session with Sunil Sethi was interesting because Bernieres was so singleminded about it. Frequently interrupted by Sethi, he would invariably recover and rephrase the answers the questions demanded. Praise be for that. Here’s Bernières in his own words:

On the nationality of his stories. I always have a problem with seeing my country as at all interesting. And that’s one reason why I tend to set my stories abroad. I never seem to find any stories at home. One day I went to a book festival in France, and I met an artist called Jacques, and he said to me, ‘I love Great Britain’. I asked ‘why?’ He said, ‘Because it’s so exotic!’ He said, ‘wherever I go in Europe—France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany—they all seem to me the same. [But] Great Britain is an immense lunatic asylum.’

On why we’re all unhinged. I have my own theories about why we’re all unhinged. We develop strong attachments to ideas and thoughts that are completely implausible. There is nothing more absurd than nationalism, is there? But you could just flick a switch and become a nationalist. The moment some foreigner says something negative about your country, you become really angry, even though you really agree with them.

On religion. The wonderful thing about religion is that it makes you feel at home in the world. But it also sets you up with a whole lot of instant enemies.

On Ataturk. I learned that you couldn’t satirise him because he wasn’t remotely ridiculous. There wasn’t really anything lunatic about him… I once vaguely angered a Turkish friend of mine by saying they should replace the Prophet with Ataturk. He was the only dictator in the history of the world who wanted his country to get smaller. He’s also the only dictator in the world who set up his own opposition party, and when it didn’t oppose him effectively, he abolished it and established another.

On the problem with Latin America. …my publishers have the rights to all Hispanic-speaking countries, and they absolutely refuse to take into account the fact that in different Latin American countries, different things have different meanings. In one country you could ask for sex, and in another you could use the same words to ask them for a cigarette.

On the cuatro. (he’s very good on the cuatro. Ask anyone who saw him play the instrument today.)