Having a child transforms you and changes the world you know. The way to explain this metamorphosis was to turn the characters inThe future is a small flame in animals. I made the main family hedgehogs. I thought it was a good metaphor for how I felt. I'd built myself a shell of spikes, not to harm anyone, but to protect myself from them.

Quimi Portet begins Songs in Bello Limousin (1987-2020) (The Second Periphery) as if he were Pla: "We Catalans are generally considered to be rather modest cattle [...]. If I had been intelligent, I would have been a plausible cynic, but [...] I have had to settle for being what they call "a joker"... The lyrics of Portet's songs in Catalan come with biographical-philosophical introductions that contradict this: Portet shines for his intelligence.