What would Maigret be like if he had a new adventure?
If I wrote a new Maigret, and the commissioner were still on active duty, the next morning he would go to hand in his resignation. One of my novels shows well what he thinks of the political world, Maigret and the Minister. Maigret already reacts poorly to appointments with certain examining magistrates, pleasant enough certainly, but recruited from the middle class and claiming to pursue their profession while knowing nothing of men, simply following the bourgeois principles that had been instilled in them. What kind justice would you expect them to return under such conditions? One has rather the impression that Maigret doesn’t believe much in justice, and that for him there are no guilty, but only victims. I don’t believe that there are any guilty. Man is so poorly armed for life that to assume his guilt is like considering him a superman. I have no more wish to make a head of state into a proud Rastignac, to sacrifice all to his small vainglory, than to be angry at a tramp living u
