If I may, Holy Father, what you are proposing is nothing short of suicide, media suicide.
Media suicide, you say? Fine, now try to keep up with me, if you can.
- I'm right with you, Holy Father.
- Good.
Ok, so, who is the most important author of the last twenty years? Careful now, not the best, virtuosity is for the arrogant, the most important, the author who has sparked so much morbid curiosity that he became the most important? I wouldn't know.
I'd say Philip Roth.
No.
Salinger.
The most important film director? - Spielberg.
- No.
Kubrick.
Contemporary artist? Jeff Koons.
Or Marina Abramovic.
Banksy.
Electronic music group? I don't know the first thing about electronic music.
You say Harvard is a good university! Anyway, Daft Punk.
The best Italian female vocalist? - Mina? - Very good! Now do you know what it is, what the invisible red thread is that connects them all, all these most important figures in their respective fields? None of them let themselves be seen.
None of them let themselves be photographed.
But you're not an artist, Holy Father.
You are a head of State.
Yes, of a city state so small that it has no outlet to the sea, and in order to survive, its leader has to make himself as unreachable as a rock star.
The Vatican survives thanks to hyperbole.
So we, we shall generate hyperbole, but this time in reverse.
I'm beginning to get your point, Holy Father.
Yes, not only am I beginning to get it, I'm beginning to like it, too.
Good, very good.
