P. S. The cat is still alive

according to the laws of the market. 

So, you have a box of cornflakes of a 

certain size, of a certain color because 

investigation has proven that is what 

appeal to the consumer. They have 

applied this to writing. So you have 

formulas for novels for the different 

genres that way invented whether 

it is fantasy literature, young adult 

literature, chick literature etc. That 

has to conform to an ideal that the 

consumers’ wants which are deduced 

by the person who is selling the book. 

In that sense the editor is very useful 

and creative writing course is very 

useful too. Because it tells you, you 

have to start a chapter like this, you 

cannot use the passive voice, your 

character has to be explained, conflict 

has to come at this point etc. That’s 

all very well if you want to produce 

an object for consumers. And it is 

disastrous if you want to produce 

literature.

As a writer who was born 

in Argentine, raised in 

France, living in another 

country rather than your 

home country and, having 

Canadian citizenship, you 

are kind of world citizen. 

What are the advantages and 

disadvantages?  

Every condition has advantages and 

disadvantages. The condition of 

being nomad is part of our identity in 

the 21th century. Many more people 

are nomads than people remaining 

in the place that they were born. 

Especially in urban centers, you 

 Alberto Manguel

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hardly ever meet someone who was 

born in the city from parents born 

in the city, from grandparents born 

in the city. We have a fluid identity 

in terms of nationality and I think 

that is a very good thing. I think 

passports and borders and even the 

idea of nationality is an invention of 

bureaucrats to serve political aims. 

But it has no logical meaning to say 

that you are faithful to a country 

simply because you were born in a 

certain place, your mother happened 

to be in that place, makes absolutely 

no sense. 

Plutarch, the Roman historian, he is 

the great biographer of the Roman 

times. Plutarch said that it was absurd 

to think that the moon of Sparta was 

more beautiful than the moon of 

Athens. These are sentimental values 

that have no meaning. Borges talked 

about the Argentinian nationality 

and he said what it means to be an 

Argentinian writer and you could ask 

the same question what it means 

a Turkish writer. It’s something 

unavoidable, something you do not 

choose the circumstances. You were 

born in Turkey and write in Turkish 

but the fact that you write about 

Turkish things would not make you 

necessarily a Turkish writer.

What do you think about 

intertextuality? There are 

a lot of relations between 

writers and their texts. We 

see similar relations or points 

in Dostoyevsky, Pamuk, 

Tanpınar’s texts. Can it be 

related with world literature? 

I approach all labels in a suspicious 

manner. Anytime you put a label on 

something, you can break it down 

and it does not help to define. The 

thing, which you label, is simply lazy 

way of thinking about it. So, you say 

Turkish writer and then you do not 

need to think about what it means. 

You say woman writer and do not 

think what it means. So I do not 

think these labels are useful. I would 

like to see literature always related 

to reading as it was anonymous. 

But that is not possible of course. 

Because, what we bring to a text so 

many outside elements that do not 

allow us to read the text as itself. We 

cannot read The Idiot of Dostoyevsky 

without thinking about Dostoyevsky 

and his religious concept, the time 

he lived and his prison in Siberia and 

then the layers of reading afterwards 

the influence he had on the novel 

in Europe and in Turkey of course. 

Once you try to clear all that where 

the novel is called Idiot. I think we 

have to be very careful with these 

labels. Consider Tanpınar for instance, 

he is closer to an Eastern European 

humor satirical in the bureau of The 

Time Regulation Institute. But he is 

also closer to the Prussian novel in 

his novel A Mind at Peace. So you 

could say that Tanpınar is not like 

Tanpınar. He is closer in one case 

to a Hungarian writer Karinthy and 

on the other side to a French writer 

like Proust. I would like to open this 

definition up so that we can place the 

work in different context and not stay 

in any single one. Just allow the work 

to be fluid.  

What would you like to say 

about the writer who writes in 

another language rather than 

his/her own language?

That is an interesting case because 

I have my own experience writing 

outside of my language, which is 

English. But I learned first German, I 

have written in French and Spanish. 

You realize when you change the 

language which you write, certain 

things happen. The first thing is 

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