"Why should I give you an interview? All journalists are thieves of words. Why should I give you my time?" The notorious director Sam Pekinpah had left the journalist who had visited him for a prearranged interview in 1982 dumbfounded. He wasn't entirely wrong though. The journalist who had rung his doorbell had indeed come to "steal". Pekinpah either knew or sensed that he was not only targeting his words. Hence, he had chosen this extreme way to make himself immune from the hostile "attack". And imagine that the misunderstanding still persists that the interview is an easy journalistic genre...

You are facing a person whom you know on paper. He may not know you at all. Without having ample time, you are called to find a way to enter his inner world. To search. To dig. To observe. To ultimately steal images and atmospheres that make up his life and everyday routine, to be a witness to the "break-in".

No, the interview is not an "easy" journalistic genre. But its greatest difficulty is also its charm: even though you can never know with precision what kind of person you will meet, you must be able to face him every time."

M.A.