Jean-Claude Carrière has written screenplays for such renowned filmmakers as Jacques Tati, Luis Buñuel and Nagisa Oshima. He is also a playwright and the author of many successful works including Fragilité, Tous en scène and Einstein, s’il vous plaît.

‘Over the centuries, like a brilliant burglar, money has seeped in among us, slowly, patiently, insidiously. Of course at times the price of something or other may surprise us, but we hardly mention it. To reassure ourselves, we say that such madness cannot last. But it does. Little by little, with the skill of a patient, hidden virus, money absorbs us.
‘It penetrates even our invisible systems, our most furtive nerves, our capillary vessels. We get used to its extreme rises, its quirks, its whims, as well as to its renunciations. We think we’ve earned it, we think we possess it. Yet it is money that possesses us.
‘Many regard money as a harmful, hateful creature, an octopus that wraps itself around us, strangling us, and from which we can no longer escape. But perhaps the millions of assault points in its contemporary offensive are more closely reminiscent of an anthill,’ writes Jean-Claude Carrière.

• Money, its great power and the central role it plays in our lives.
• Jean-Claude Carrière is a successful writer whose works are well received by readers and critics.