Screenwriter, playwright, writer, Jean-Claude Carrière is the author of best-selling books such as Einstein, s’il vous plait , Fragilité , Tous en scène , and, most recently, Croyance.
We come from it, and we return to it. And yet, we are unable to talk about it. Nothingness – which is neither nothing, nor the void – remains fundamentally unknown, the non-being, without feelings, without awareness, and without memory.
To approach it, cautiously, I set off on a stroll, following paths randomly. I wanted to see how others have reacted, here and there, in the history of the world, to the most secret, the most enduring of mysteries.
As everyone knows, we are all carried by an irresistible movement. That movement is our master. Nothing remains, nothing comes back.
How, then, can we protect ourselves from the despair and the vanity of our lives, if we are to keep nothing of them?
How can we perhaps derive strength, maybe even joy, from this?
And why should we dream of immortality?