LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP
By living lives other than their own, they need writing to find themselves. Seven personalities evoke this new space of freedom and creation. For the actress, it is above all a refuge.
“From my first diary, at the age of 11, to film and play scripts, I have never stopped writing. But after the departure of Jean-Pierre Bacri (died in January 2021, Editor’s note), with whom I have always shared my pen, I was distraught. I didn’t know if I was going to get there yet… And then the project of this first book evoking my childhood, The size of our breasts *accompanied by illustrations by Cécile Partouche, a painter whom I admire and above all my friend for over fifty years, seemed obvious to me. A kind of sweet, pleasant interlude, which allowed me to console myself for a while. I liked remembering, thinking about what had changed, counted, surprised, traumatized, betrayed.
Beyond being vital, writing seems to me to be the best way to gain perspective on life. To put down somewhere what happens to us, and to come back to it if necessary over time or emotions. Because memories transform everything, giving us the good part in general, and thus making us forget the details of the most difficult moments. So much the better, because it is thanks to this omission that we survive. But putting everything down on paper, the good and the bad, undoubtedly has therapeutic virtues. I like everything about writing, especially the fact that it takes time.
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In our new society of immediacy, the idea of taking one’s time has partly disappeared, taking with it that of reflection. I like to take my pen, my little notebooks, my computer, and immerse myself in this silent bubble. It is a refuge, an infinite space of freedom, in which I am “I”, and not in the “game” as on the screen or on the stage. We appeal to our own life, our autonomy, our thoughts, without thinking about the ideas or desires of others. A moment of calm, or at least distance from the turmoil. I don’t know yet if I will start writing a second novel, but I know that I will take pleasure in finding myself in this space of freedom.
Agnès Jaoui is also a director, screenwriter and singer.
* The Size of Our Breasts, Éditions Grasset, 2024.
