Where did you get the inspiration for this second book?
It is a sort of continuation of the first. It came from the place all my things come from, life.

How much is there that is autobiographical?
There is a lot which is autobiographical, for the setting and for the importance of the music. There is a time dilation that I haven't lived through, but there is always autobiography when you write.

I liked the way you dealt with the theme of death, in a polyhedric and variegated way: the whole of life seems to be summed up in it. Death is a place for memories, but also sublimation of feelings, or a hiding place for lies...
I think often about death, not so much mine, which I don't worry about. But I have been touched by death, in the sense that I lost almost all my family. So it is a subject I would inevitably have to deal with. I also have a real passion for cemeteries, although not a necrophile passion. There are some beautiful parks; I remember the Hebrew cemetery where Shiller is buried in Jerusalem, which is completely different from ours: their tombs are extremely simple, marked by rocks. Or the Breton cemeteries, on the sea: they are empty tombs because they belong to sailors who died at sea. The cemetery for me is not a sad place, rather one of great peace, of meditation. And strolling in a cemetery like the Père-Lachaise, which I think is the second park in Paris, is a wonderful moment, also for the nature that surrounds you.
 
Your prose is so musical, with very precise and rhythmic pauses.
It is an instinctive style: I remove repetitions, I polish, but what I write comes as it is, by itself, there is no reflection. Certainly inside you will find my readings, my passions, but it is absolutely not intentional.

What are the literary models you are inspired by?
There are the great ones, up on the Olympus, like Proust, whom I consider the greatest: for me, for my life, for m,y soul. Then there are the French authors, Colette, whom I love very much because she has irony, an unscrupulousness that I don't have. I go by periods. I decide: I'll read all the Russians. There are so many good books to read. I avoid contemporaries quite a bit, but I do like Gianni Riotta a lot, and among foreign authors I like Robert Schneider. But I live by passions. Sometimes I make attempts: I have read Citati, then I have wanted to try Jane Austen, but she bores me a lot. So I just leave it: there is so much stuff to read that it's a pity to be wasting time. I do not love adventure books or crime stories very much, I prefer books where people are told of, of feelings in a general sense, not just love feelings. After all, excluding police genre, adventure and spy stories, all the rest of literature speaks of love stories, speaks of Man.

Does Milan still offer opportunities of cultural life?
No, it doesn't at all. It is a provincial city, and it will become more so. From the point of view of liveability it is nightmare. And from the cultural point of view it like a Third Worlder. The great exhibitions are not done here, and the great works of art are not here. The Scala is by now a fortress emptied of any meaning and of true and proper cultural events. The Piccolo Teatro resists, but only because it had Strehler and other great figures. But Milan is a dead city, there is nothing left. In Paris you can go and see an off-off show, or to the Opera, and there is no problem. London has another type of liveliness, but in its exhibitions and the architecture is invaluable. I am not totally pessimistic, but I consider it a lost city. There aren't any spaces for youth aggregation, we have administrations that manage cities like condominiums... We must fight.

Internet can help eliminate the distances, and diffuse art and culture?
According to me the net works very well on the services, but culture is a service too. There is still need to work on speed and search engines, and then many sites close down: "Zivago" closed down because stockholders couldn't reach an agreement. Feltrinelli came out of the business... There are fantastic sites, but the great risk is the closure, the lack of human contact. Communication is constantly more rarefied, more virtual, the senses are not used anymore. But it is true that it gives extraordinary possibilities, you can visit a museum virtually. Internet is a great stimulus, if you can use it actively and not passively. And the wonderful thing is that it is so easy to use.

How was you relationship with music born?
I fell in love with a musician, and that's why I fell in love with music. Then I had the great fortune of working in the Scala, where you hear music every day. It is a love that was born when I was little, and then, loving a person who played, I loved it even more. But it's always love that sparks off love. There is always a profound reason, a deep passion for something, it is in any case a vital impulse that gives birth to love. The passion for things or works always are born from the deep. Even in the most rational people great passions are always born of life.