At the core of Marie Desplechin's writing, more than the real of death, it's the real of survival that endeavors to be approached. Through co-authoring –as in La Vie sauve with Lydie Violet (Médicis Prize, essays, 2005) or with Aya Cissoko for Danbé (Grand prix de l'héroïne Madame Figaro, 2011) –, the writer accesses the most intimate. She, who admits that as a child she couldn't sleep, tells here how writing allowed her to « get the black out of the nightmare » – a name of the real for her.