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Do you live where you want to live?: I am very happy, because I live in a privileged place: it is a real "barrio" and, at the same time, the city. Virtually next door, I have a market, a hospital and the fire station, just in case.
Why and where would you like to move to?: I wouldn't change for anything. If life gave me a lucky break, and I became a millionaire, I would say: "Thank you very much, Pedralbes, thank you very much, Sarrià, but I will stay where I am ". And I will continue to live where I live. I need to be able to buy bread, the newspaper and tomatoes on my doorstep.
Do you spend time in your neighbourhood and with your neighbours? Do you have the shops you need nearby (baker's, grocer's, dry cleaner's)?: I spend all my time in my neighbourhood. Every morning I go to the gym, which is in front of the Ninot market, and I go with my shopping trolley. When I leave the gym, I only have to cross the street, load up my trolley and then home; all in all a few moments.
As well as doing your daily shopping (if you do it) do you have places and services for all your needs?: Right on my doorstep there are places to repair my clothes, my computer, I have my hairdresser, hair removal, everything, and even a baker's to make me sin even more, it's fantastic. In a few words, it's as if I was in Lourdes: there is an answer for everything.
Do you stroll around your own neighbourhood for pleasure or do you go elsewhere?: I know my own neighbourhood so well that when I really want to have a walk around, I go to the Barri Gòtic, which is the other zone in Barcelona which holds me captive.
Which are your favourite cinemas, theatres and clubs?: I choose a cinema or theatre for what's on there. To go out at night I like the Cómico Cómico very much, where Magin, an extraordinary performer, plays. I also like going to the Picasso, the cabaret in Carrer Elkano, with Tona Olmedo, who sings Spanish music like no other can.
And which are your favourite restaurants, bars and cafés?: I have my special restaurant: Can Lluís, in Carrer de la Cera, where so many theatre people have always gone. It is fantastic to see how locals mix, at all the tables, in such a friendly way, with the most famous actors in the country, and even with some Hollywood stars.
Is there any public area where you like to go, to sit and chat?: Parc Turó, which is an important breathing space in the city, with that little bar, "chiringuito", where, for many months of the year, you can sit in the sun and forget about UV machines. And you can even get brown while having a drink, it is fantastic!
When you have to act as a guide for visitors, where do you take them?: When we get visitors from elsewhere, I first take them, with Guillermo who has been my partner for a few years now, to the Torre de Collserola, sometimes straight from the airport, and we say to them: "Look, Barcelona is at your feet", then we go into the city. And I swear to you that tears fall from their eyes.
What is the most appropriate, funny or surprising adjective you have heard to describe Barcelona? Which one would you use?: I will answer with a commentary on Catalonia which affects all Catalans: once I was listening to Mendoza, who was president of Real Madrid, and one of the owners of Panam's, a cabaret on La Rambla, who said: "Catalonia has the best motorways in Spain". They say things like this, sarcastically, but they don't say that we pay for them. And the best adjective I would use for Barcelona is "mine".
Of where, between the sea and Tibidabo, do you have the most memories?: I have so many memories! Particularly of my childhood, in that sad country of the post-war period. My mother was a seamstress in Espanya Industrial, and I remember the canteen for the workers and their families, where they gave me rice, boiled with garlic, and I thought it was heaven. On the days when we wanted to pretend to be rich, as there wasn't enough money to be able to get a real plane, I got on the one at Tibidabo. Another memory is of the allotment, the "tower" (in inverted commas of course) that my family had, between the fields and the tollhouse of Les Corts. We went there every day off, to eat rice and drink water from a jug, under the fig tree, next to the reservoir which little Amparito thought was the best swimming pool ever. We were evicted for a hundred pesetas when they built Camp Nou.
Which is the best place (a park, a café, a seat in the city) to have a romantic date, or to be able to whisper sweet nothings to a loved one?: The castle of Montjuïc, in those little covered corners where you can see everything, where the breeze from the sea messes up your hair, but who cares!
What colours or smells, when you see or smell them anywhere in the world, remind you immediately of Barcelona?: The smell of fish, of a mix of fish, of prawns and sardines, for example, which smell very strong... When it comes to colour, Barcelona is blue, but also orange, and for a Leo like me, orange is very important, I want to say "sun and sea ", and the sun and the sea transports me immediately to Barcelona.
When you have had to leave the city for a while, what have you missed most?: I travel a lot for work, I travel to Madrid a lot, where I am happy, very happy, but I do miss things: not hearing my language, mainly. And whether we like it or not, every city is different, something special, its own something, difficult to explain, but you need it just like you need to breathe, I at least need it like I need to breathe.
Which of the changes that have been made in the city recently are you happiest with?: Everything that has opened up to the sea; before, not so long ago, when I was little, the sea was virtually closed off from the city. I also like this fashion for food, converting food into pleasure. And I am very proud that a colleague from Hospitalet, from a family just as ordinary as mine, has achieved world recognition, I am speaking of Ferran Adrià of course. Because, I haven't said, but I was born in Hospitalet, even though I was registered in the home of a relative living in Barcelona, because, at that time, Barcelona gave children milk but in Hospitalet they didn't.
What don't you like, and what would you do to change it?: I would like all buildings to have their own parking, without any complications of "blue" or "green" parking areas. That our city wasn't the most expensive in the world. That the rest of Spain didn't ask us for so much money, as if our pockets were so deep they would never empty.
Add anything you would like to say, and that we haven't asked.
: I would like to say that when I return to Catalonia and see Montserrat my heart lifts, and I think: "I'm home", and also when I get off the plane and feel the smell of the sea; I don't need anything else to be happy.