Conversations depend on the other, and they always were more important to me than monologues. In these conversations you can hear how others respond to their passion for literature and music, fine arts and philosophy, how they articulate and share it. This is more relevant than the specific occasion for the talks. Some of them were part of book reviews, others I did for my own books, and sometimes they were just a talk of friends, like the afternoon that Peter Bultink and me were speaking, reflecting, thinking together in the Brasserie du Parc in Ostend. Only extracts from these conversations were published. But I think, they express profound insights regarding all of these disciplines — literature and music, fine arts, philosophy. So therefore I make them available here, complete, without extra cuts.