Abstract: Since 2011, Mr. Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, a famous French writer and Nobel Laureate in literature, has been teaching at Nanjing University, offering General Education courses for undergraduates and lecturing on literature, art, culture, and the interaction between them. During Mr. Le Clézio's stay, Professor Xu Jun of Zhejiang University carried on a continuous and in-depth discussion with him regarding the concept of writing, the relationship between writing and imagination, and the relationship between memory and travel. As far as writing, imagination, and memory are concerned, Le Clézio believes that novel writing begins with an inquiry of reality. It integrates myth and imagination into reality, whereas imagination is the only form of action, which stimulates memory activities. Reading is the most important part in the process, because it makes emotions and memories concrete as words. In terms of the relationship between the origin of writing and the course of life, Le Clézio does not deny that all his works are more or less autobiographical. He thinks that spoken language (experience) can create literature, just as literary memory can create literature. He has been surprised to find the connection between experience and dream, reality and imagination, and especially self and the world, in classical Chinese poetry. And he regards such a connection as the paradigm of world literature. As to travel and poetic adventure, Le Clézio confesses that his writing is first of all imaginary, and that real travel is not so important to him even though he once went through a journey to Africa, where he experienced a rebirth both physically and mentally. He prefers journeying in books over traveling in life.

Key words: Le Clézio, writing, imagination, memory, poetic adventure