Q. Do your characters first come to you as voices when you start writing a play?

Exactly – as voices. I don't visualise any characters. And when Barrault wanted to stage Le Silence and Le Mensonge, he asked me how old the characters were and who they were. I was almost by accident that I wrote 'man' or 'woman'. In truth I could have switched those designations or put them in the plural. I don't see them and I don't visualise the stage either. I don't see any exterior action. I just hear voices and rhythms.

Nathalie Sarraute, interviewed