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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
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What is your earliest memory?
The feel of sand sliding through my fingers on a warm beach. -
Who was or still is your mentor?
Many people, books and historical figures have influenced me. But no one in particular. Maybe I have always escaped too strong individual influences. -
How fit are you?
I am OK for my age. A couple of my friends are better. Most are worse. Many are no longer with us. I consider myself fortunate. -
Tell me about an animal you have loved.
It was short but intense. In my hippy days, I spent time in a country house with friends and, for a while, we had a goat. Her name was Lucrezia. Lucrezia the goat would enter the kitchen and eat everything. I used to milk her. Believe me, it is a non-trivial business, milking a goat. -
Risk or caution, which has defined your life more?
Risk, by far. I have always taken the risky alternative. But I am not reckless. On the contrary: I select the most adventurous road, then I am cautious along it. -
What trait do you find most irritating in others?
Hypocrisy. It is rampant. There is great talk of values and high moral standards — to cover self-interest, brutality and power games. -
What trait do you find most irritating in yourself?
Me? I thought I was perfect. Am I not? Maybe excessive humility? -
What drives you on?
Love, curiosity, ambition. I truly would appreciate to figure out the quantum properties of spacetime and find a way to evaluate the tentative theories I have contributed. And sometimes, even still, an endlessly disappointed hope of being able to do something good for others. -
Do you believe in an afterlife?
There are few things I am convinced of. One is that there is no afterlife at all for our individual selves. This reassures me greatly. I’d be terrified at the idea of surviving for eternity. Eternity is unbelievably long. The boredom would be unbearable. It puzzles me how people can take a silly and unpleasant idea appreciate the afterlife seriously. -
Which is more puzzling, the existence of suffering or its frequent absence?
Suffering. The common explanations of why there is suffering are not convincing. I feel there is something yet to be understood from the question of why living beings suffer. Why has nature endowed us with such an unwelcome gift? She could have engineered the same behaviour without the pain. She has no reason to treat us well, but no obvious reason to treat us so badly either. -
Name your favourite river.
I had a crush on the Danube at 16. I hitchhiked alone from Paris to Sofia, sleeping in the fields, then took a train from Sofia to achieve the Danube. I arrived in the late evening in a small town, walked north until I found the great river, and spent the night in ecstasy, running along its banks. Then I found a small boat moored to an old, rickety pier, jumped on to it, and got to sleep watching the last stars. I was perfectly happy. -
What would you have done differently?
Why should I have done anything differently? We go through life with good and bad, joy and grief, regrets and remorse. It is maddening and marvellous. But it is all OK. It is life.
“White Holes: Inside the Horizon”, by Carlo Rovelli, is published by Allen Lane
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