Interpreters are wizards – at times they seem to have read my mind. AI could never compete | John Banville

They can take another's words and sentences and reshape them, on the instant, transforming my stammered-over words into sublimities

• John Banville is an author. His latest novel is The Lock-Up

Back in 1985, the Irish government asked me to attend the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which took place that year in Budapest. The theme was culture, hence the choice of a novelist, and a political ignoramus such as myself, to be the delegate from Ireland.

At the time the cold war was still distinctly warm, there was very little cooperation between east and west, and no one felt particularly secure. The conference rapidly degenerated into a slanging match between the American and Russian delegations, over the heads of us inconsequential Europeans.

John Banville is an author. His latest novel is The Lock-Up