Andrea Camilleri

Andrea Camilleri is Italy’s most successful author, having published more than 40 books and sold more than 20 million copies around the world. His Inspector Montalbano Mysteries have been translated into multiple languages, and The Times [London] named Camilleri one of the “50 Greatest Crime Writers.”

From his Q & A with PBS:

You’re 83 years old and still writing. What keeps you going, and what do you love about writing?

What keeps me writing is the pleasure of writing. I love writing when it manages to be complete because it has expressed everything one wanted to say.

What’s it like to have such enormous success late in life? Do you think you would have experienced it differently if you had been younger when it hit?

I’m forever convinced that things happen when they’re supposed to happen, and this is why I’m unable to question myself about my success. If it had happened to me when I was younger, it probably would have had a much stronger effect on me. This way, its effect has been much more relative.

What did you learn from your background in theater and drama that you apply to your novel writing?

I learned...[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue