Q: Where are you from?

A: I was born of France and am of French lineage. People often think that I have oriental, persian or even American origins. Perhaps this is due to the fact, that I spent most of my life living away from France. All the same, I shall never accept to be defined by the land on which I was born, or the places I travelled through. That is a concept that I shall never recognize. My most important legacy remains my poem "Erase my grave".

Q: Why do you write in English?

A: Well, I wrote Poetry in France and was a member of the Societe des Artistes et Poetes de France. I got published. One of the member of the jury of the Societe des Artistes was living close to my place, he had some 30 years of writing behind him. He somehow took a close interest in my work. I won some awards, I do not remember which, I was about 14.

I moved to :London and persued other artistic interests. Somehow, totally at random, I would meet artists of far away countries, People who would exert later a profound influence on the artistic life of their respective countries somehow found me out, spot me out. I am not sure why and how. Some of them who passed away are world reknowned.

I started writing in English some 2 years ago. And people seem to like my work, it is my only incentive for my writing. I do speak and write in other languages as well.

Q: Do you write under your own name?

A: Yes I do, I also use pen-names. As I am known in the different places where I lived under my real names or nicknames. Whatever was easier. My name is not important to me. I have hardly any ego, just pride of soul.

Q: Death is a recurring theme in your writing?

A: I am aware that I am living now , physically and symbolically in a desert and that there is a well. I take this journey as the illusory one and I long to go through the gate to find the light and truth. Death is not tragic to me, it is the normal conclusion of life. It is normal that I seek its whereabouts.

Q: Why are you so difficult to reach, to approach?

A: I am not sure.

Q: You often say that you write English with a French accent. what do you mean?

A: It means I am an adept of automatic writing. When a story or poem is ready at the door of my soul, I open the door and let it out as I feel it. I hardly review or take more than a day to write a story or a poem. They just show up.

Q: What are your plans for the future?

A: I am a fatalist, I live in the moment, yesterday and tomorrow are not my concern. I hardly care.

Q: Which author has influenced you the most?

A: Again, I live in the moment, I never stay long enough in a page, a place, a heart to be influenced. My writing truely springs from the mystical part of my being.

Q: You say that your writing are based on events that took place in your life. Is that true?

A: Yes, it is. Most of my writing is based on realities I lived in different places, of course those events have been transformed into fiction and poetry to convey a lighter meaning to the reader. The world to me is very much Mayan.

Q: Why lighter?

A: Because I craft magic tales, that will take my reader to a place where light and purity are still existing. If that place is death, that is where I shall transport the reader.

Q: Why have you chosen to be a trader in Arabia?

A: No, I have not chosen it, I am attracted by the purification process of the sea and the sand, in its harshest forms, what better place than Arabia? Besides it happened as everything else in my life, the fatalist in me just followed my lifeline without any revolt. A transitory and illusory phase like any other. No special meaning really.

Q: What are your plans for the future?

A: None, I live in the moment. It is impossible for me to think in terms of yesterday or tomorrow. To me time is one unique line where I can trod upon backwards or forwards in the same moment. Everything shall be left unfinished....

Interview of Rahman, Brigitte Arlette-2000