Raffaele La Capria has started his summer holidays in the family home of his wife Ilaria Occhini, near Arezzo in Tuscany. But summer holidays mean very little to a writer. There are no particular rules or hours.

Raffaele La Capria, what is a writer's role in Italy today?

To have a dissenting opinion. In other words, to be completely autonomous and unpredictable, because this is the only way to foster ideas and get them moving in society.

Are you a writer who is read and heard?

My works deserve to be better known, and I say this not because I am presumptuous, but because........