“And, in a way, I have nothing left to lose anymore.” You’ve been talking about Megalopolis since the late 1970s. At what point did you seriously start to think of this as a real project?

Who by fire and who by “nothing left to lose.” When I’m done in this world, I’ll be good and done. But I intend to ensure that I keep asking these questions until then, ...

“I have everything to lose here,” he says, referring to this portrait of the decline, fall, and Phoenix-like rise of a civilization. “And, in a way, I have nothing left to lose anymore. ...