Interview for Brazilian newspaper Hoje Em Dia about the book The Zahir.

• What differences do you make between the texts written for newspapers and magazines and your novels? Can they function as a laboratory for generating ideas for future works?

In the columns I keep the constant exercise of synthesis, which helps me to be in contact with the act of writing. However, the themes are more varied than those of a book – usually legends of different cultures, or experiences I went through.

• Minas Gerais is a granary of creation and resonance around the work of great names in Brazilian literature, from Guimarães Rosa to Carlos Drummond de Andrade, from Lúcio Cardoso to Roberto Drummond. What contacts do you have with the literary production of Minas Gerais and, above all, what appreciation do you have of the culture of this State in the national panorama?

Minas really gave us not only writers (and you forgot to mention Fernando Sabino, for example), but excellent musicians, painters, and the independence martyr. A state that actively participates in the country’s cultural and political life.

• Your most recent novel, “The Zahir”, as usual, went straight to the top of the lists of the best selling books in Brazil. How was the process of conceiving the work and to what extent can it be seen as autobiographical in a few moments?

The unexpected happens – and we are not always prepared for it. When everything in our life seems organised, there is the danger. Because what they call “organisation”, in fact, is just a story that they told us, and that does not support itself. In the book, I try to explore the story they didn’t tell us, using as a main character a successful writer, who is suddenly abandoned by his wife, and has to rediscover his life. But instead of taking a step forward and discovering other opportunities, he lets himself be dominated by the question “why did my wife leave me”, and that becomes his Zahir. This idea of ​​obsession has always seduced me, and now I have managed to put it into words. As for the autobiographical part, it is not only in “The Zahir” but in all my books. I can’t write about something I haven’t experienced.

• Jorge Luis Borges points out the origin of Zahir, the title of your new book, as an Islamic tradition that emerged around the 18th century. In Arabic, Zahir means something visible, present. Why explore the idea of ​​Zahir, this strange kind of guide?

We have all of our Zahirs in life – things that negatively focus our attention, but which we cannot get rid of. It is very different from the concept of personal legend – a dream that must be fulfilled, but that requires us to adapt, and above all, joy.

• Today, you are the most widely read and commented Brazilian writer in the world. To what extent does this achievement influence your worldview and also your literary construction process?

What really influences me is human contact.

• You have contact with countless world leaders. What is your position on the war in Iraq and the current American war hegemony in the world?

As for Iraq, Bush and his advisers have entered a minefield – and now it will be very difficult to leave. But it is superficial to generalise, and to start to develop an anti-American feeling.

• What are your next literary projects? Is there a topic you would like to write about and haven’t done yet?

In the columns, I divide my day-to-day. In the case of books, I never think about the themes – they choose me. I usually need two years to let something new mature.

• What is the role, the social function of the writer in today’s world?

The same as any responsible citizen: fight for everyone to accept that they are responsible for the future of the planet.