Alain Elkann Interviews

FINDING JOY IN DESOLATION Colum McCann's eight novels and three collections of short stories have been published in over forty languages and received some of the world's most prestigious literary awards and honours, including the National Book Award for his novel Let the Great World Spin in 2009. His novel TransAtlantic was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2013, and his most recent work, Apeirogon, also longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, is an international bestseller on four continents.

"Storytelling is the thing we have between us that is perhaps the most profound, the closest thing to God that I can recognise."

"Writing is a little like being a musician who wants to learn different instruments."

"I love being out in the world, listening to people, travelling. Then I have to come indoors, close the door and shut everything out."

JOURNEY OF RESILIENCE. Gilda Moratti is the daughter of the founder of San Patrignano, one of Europe's most important rehabilitation communities that for over 40 years has offered free help to thousands of girls and boys with addiction problems. In Gilda's journal titled Terra, published by Francesco Brioschi Editore, the protagonist Terra is the founder of humanitarian and educational foundations. Terra is a strong, enterprising and determined woman. She fights to protect the environment and animals. Her mission is to track down criminals, smugglers and traffickers and, one by one, bring them to justice. Over the years, dangerous intelligence operations take her to the four corners of the world, until one morning when the course of her life changes forever.

Inspired by her own true story, Gilda's diary Terra recounts the suffering caused by illness and an almost miraculous rebirth. After being diagnosed with terminal cancer, she must find the strength within herself to survive. Alongside conventional treatment, she embarks on a path to healing: she practices meditation, lives in close contact with nature, and revisits and reworks her past through her travel diaries. Over time, she learns to let the pain wash over her, to recognise it as necessary; and at the same time, she must first fall apart if she is to put herself back together again.

"When I was first diagnosed, I was told I might have two months. It has now been five years."

"I am surrounded by love. For me, that is enough. More than enough. It is beautiful."

"Crying is important, of course. But sometimes you can also turn something into a laugh. It is good for the heart."

https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/gilda-moratti/

ICONIC ITALIAN ACTRESS & FILMMAKER. Valeria Golino is an acclaimed Italian actress and filmmaker. Born in Naples, Italy, she grew up between Greece and Italy and is one of the most internationally recognized Italian figures in cinema, fluent in Italian, Greek, French, and English. To English-language audiences, she is most famous for her prominent roles in late '80s and early '90s American films, including Rain Man (1988), Big Top Pee-wee (1988), and the parody comedies Hot Shots! (1991) and Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993). She holds the rare distinction of being one of only four actresses to have won the prestigious Volpi Cup for Best Actress twice at the Venice Film Festival (for Storia d'amore in 1986 and Per amor vostro in 2015). She has starred in celebrated European projects such as Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) and prominent television series like Apple TV+'s The Morning Show. Golino has also found critical success behind the camera, directing well-received films like Miele (2013) and Euforia (2018), as well as the 2024 drama series L'Arte della Gioia (The Art of Joy).

"I became an actress by Chance, but I continued by Choice. I like being an actress, and now I like directing even more."

"You feel that you've done something that may be useful — not practically, perhaps, but useful to the soul. Cinema can make you change your mind."

"I think if you lose childhood and innocence, somehow you lose yourself. A lot of my childhood has stayed with me. It never left, and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing."

https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/valeria-golino/

A LIFE IN TRANSLATION. Alastair McEwen was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, in July 1950. He is a man of letters, a former teacher and, above all, one of the most distinguished translators of Italian literature into English. To date, he has published over 100 book-length translations (novels and non-fiction), essays, articles, and poems, plus several feature film scripts and operatic librettos. He has translated some of the most important Italian writers of our time: Umberto Eco, Roberto Calasso, Antonio Tabucchi, Fleur Jaeggy, Alessandro Baricco, Aldo Busi and many others.

"One of the great pleasures of translation: you are constantly learning about subjects you previously knew nothing about."

"Translations change because language changes."

"If you stop reading for a month, the modern world moves so quickly that you can fall behind to an extraordinary degree."

https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/alastair-mcewen/

FEARLESS, ALWAYS EVOLVING. Michelle Yeoh, the Malaysian actress born in 1962, is considered to be one of the greatest female action movie stars. In a career spanning over four decades, she has acted in film and television productions covering a wide range of genres and received various accolades. Yeoh gained global recognition in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and starred in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). Her versatility continued in Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) and The Lady (2011), a biopic about Aung San Suu Kyi. In 2023 she became the first Asian performer to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) and she received the Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival in February, 2026.

"When I set out to do a movie, the main intention is to do a good movie, to be very satisfied that it's something that you will be proud of."

"The movies and the characters that I have done are not the same, and I tried my very best to do that so that I am constantly evolving and learning."

"I do believe that the harder you work, the luckier you become, so that when the opportunity does arise you are prepared for it."

https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/michelle-yeoh

A LIFE OF HONOR. Aimone di Savoia Aosta, 6th Duke of Aosta, was born in Florence in 1967. After studying at the Naval College in Venice and beginning his professional life in London, he moved to Russia in the early 1990s. He later joined the Pirelli Group and more recently returned to Italy after many years abroad. He has also served as Ambassador of the Order of Malta to Russia.

"Italian History does not begin in 1946, but March the 17th 1861, in Turin! "

"The title of Duke of Puglia was given to me by Umberto II and this grant was part of the tradition of the House of Savoy"

"I believe Europeans should make a greater effort to stop the war"

https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/aimone-di-savoia-aosta

THE MASTER OF ECLECTIC DESIGN. Jacques Grange is a world-famous French interior designer, renowned for his eclectic style, high-profile celebrity clientele, and classical training. Born on June 27, 1944, in France, Jacques studied at the École Boulle and the École Camondo in Paris. He worked under legendary designer Henri Samuel, assisting on major restorations like the Grand Trianon at Versailles. Jacques opened his own Paris-based design firm in 1970. Known for seamlessly blending traditional and contemporary tastes, he combines high art, antiques from the 18th and 19th centuries, and modern statement pieces with a touch of wit.

"A room should never be entirely predictable. If everything is perfect, it becomes boring."

"I have never believed that everything should come from the same century."

"I don't separate my life from my work."

https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/jacques-grange/

TALKING ABOUT A LOST WORLD. Ralph Toledano is an art historian and a writer. He recently published La Lune dans le Tourbillon, the fourth volume of a series of novels that explores the lives, questions of identity and spirituality, failures and hopes of members of the Sephardic elite of Moroccan origin: Un Prince à Casablanca, Revoir Tanger, Le Retour du Phénix were the previous ones.

"Forgiveness is the key to hope and to reconstruction."

"One has to take the best of the past and project it in the future, because the future is hope of bettering life as a whole, and not only for oneself."

"A collapse is sometimes necessary for a rebirth"

https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/ralph-toledano

IN LOVE WITH LITERATURE. Caroline Michel is since 2007 both the CEO of literary agency Peters Fraser and Dunlop (PFD) and has served as Chair and previously Trustee of Hay Literary Festival. She is a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE), a high-ranking official award that is the female equivalent of a knighthood and given by the British monarch to women for major national service. Among Dame Caroline's many appointments, she is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Vice President of the London Library and a Trustee of Historic Royal Palaces, as well as having been a member of the Booker Prize Advisory Committee.

"People see truth and authenticity in a book and they love the object."

"The cultural power of language and books from anywhere in the world is very exciting"

"Now, as an agent, you work alongside the publisher the whole way to make sure that the process doesn't slip off everybody's attention."

www.alainelkanninterviews.com/caroline-michel/

MANAGER OF A MASSIVE CULTURAL LEGACY. Barbara Jatta is an Italian art historian and the Director of the Vatican Museums. Appointed by Pope Francis in 2017, she made history as the first woman ever to lead the prestigious institution. A highly respected expert in the history of drawing, engraving, and graphic arts, before her directorship she built a long career at the Vatican, notably serving as the head of the prints department at the Vatican Apostolic Library. As Director, she manages a massive cultural legacy that spans 7 miles of exhibit space, including the Sistine Chapel and a huge collection of artifacts. Her leadership focuses heavily on conservation, education, and modernising visitor experiences across the Vatican's various museums and galleries.

"While the Vatican Museums are the museums of Popes and of the present Pope, we take care of worldwide and universal collections and it is our responsibility to share them with our visitors."

"We have tried to make people understand that the Vatican Museums have so much more to offer beyond Raphael and Michelangelo."

"It is extremely important to offer our visitors a journey to the collections which is not only artistical or historical but also spiritual."

https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/barbara-jatta/