Imet Philippe Starck at his gleaming white studio in Paris. After introducing us to his wife Jasmine, he asked what he could do for us. This was not some pose. Starck is convinced that what matters in design, as in love, is accommodating the other. He is funny, accessible and courteous, quietly spoken, but sometimes bursting into laughter. Not much given to talking, he nevertheless has a great deal to say. After an interview lasting over two hours, he had to leave for a meeting. "For once it was interesting," he said. Here are some selected excerpts."There are two sorts of day: good ones and bad ones. For a good one, I need to get to bed early the previous night, at about 1am. A lot happens when I'm asleep. Every night after putting my book down, I leave for work. I say to my wife: "I'm off to work." It's awful really, I lead my real life at night, visiting different worlds, experiencing situations and smells, seeing things that don't exist and of which there is no sign in the real world. Night after night I go somewhere else, dreaming intensely. Sometimes, on waking, I think it was beautiful, forgetting it was just a dream. In practice it's not a great deal of use in my work, apart from François Mitterrand's desk, which I designed after seeing it in a dream, making a sketch when I woke up.