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Yes, Umberto Eco, in all possibilities, likes being interviewed. He readily answers every question asked by Mukund Padmanabhan in an energetic and lively manner. He does not seem apprehensive about sharing his secrets, experiences and opinions with the interviewer, and consequently, the world. There is no indication throughout the interview that he dislikes being interviewed.

During the interview, Mukund Padmanabhan reiterates David Lodge’s astonishment on Umberto Eco’s large amount of works and how he manages to write them all. Eco replies that just like the universe has empty spaces, our lives too, have a lot of empty spaces or ‘interstices’, as he calls them. Whenever he has a few moments to spare in between two different tasks, instead of wasting them, he uses the time to write. He even gives an example of his working technique. He says that while waiting for someone to come up the elevator he keeps himself busy.

Eco’s writing style is strikingly different from that of the standard academic mode. The academicians first make a thorough research, then move on to prove their hypotheses, and finally, give their conclusion on that subject. The final outcome, therefore, comes out as tedious. Eco, on the other hand, tells the story of his research, including his “trials and errors”. While the scholars usually use a very depersonalised and dull manner, Eco’s style is personalised and playful, and in the form of a narrative.

Umberto Eco considered himself an academic scholar first and then a novelist. He wrote more scholarly articles as compared to novels; and, he attended academic conferences and not meetings of Pen Clubs and writers. According to him, he was a university professor who wrote novels on Sundays. “I started writing novels by accident”, he said.