SOURCE: "An Interview with Michel Tournier," in Partisan Review, Vol. LII, No. 4, 1985, pp. 407-13.

In the following interview, Daly questions Tournier about his novel Gaspard, Melchior et Balthazar, as well as about the function of myth in his work.

The following interview with Tournier took place on a sunny summer day in Paris, in the offices of his publisher, Gallimard, after he had just published his seventh major fictional work, Gaspard, Melchior and Balthazar (The Four Wise Men).

[Daly]: Why did you choose the three Magi as the subject for Gaspard, Melchior and Balthazar?

[Tournier]: I always wanted to do something with my Christian background which is very important to me because I was brought up in Christian schools. Consequently, it was one of the things I wanted to talk about. I think that the choice of the three wise men was a particularly appropriate subject for me...