Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, 68, a French author, won the 2008 Nobel Literature Prize on Thursday. The Nobel Swedish Academy said that Le Clezio is a writer “of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilisation." His travels helped him imagine a poetic world which brought him maybe the most important prize of his life.

The writer said that he had been “very moved” and that it was a great honor for him to receive such an award. “I'm sincerely grateful to the Nobel Academy," he said. Le Clezio is one of the best known French writers outside his country. His 2003 novel, “Revolutions” was characterized as gathering "the most important themes of his work: memory, exile, the reorientations of youth, cultural conflict."

The writer’s novels are likely about travelling. His most fiction adventures usually happen in Mexico or the Sahara as in Paris or London. His first novel, “"Le Proces-Verbal" (1963) was published when he was only 23 years old. At that moment, he was seen as the one who continued the current spread by Alain Robbe-Grillet.

Robert Louis Stevenson and Joseph Conrad are the two travelers who Le Clezio admires most. The author won the Renaudot award in 1963 for "Le Proces-Verbal," France's second most prestigious literary award after the Goncourt prize. The 68-year-old French writer has released his latest novel, "Ritournelle de la faim," this year and it has already been a great success.

He will receive the Nobel diploma, the medal and 10 million kronor (1.02 million euros) at a ceremony which will be held in Stockholm on December 10.