"First of all…so unexpected, it's something I never thought I would receive…it really touches me. It's made me very emotional."
Born in the suburbs of Paris in 1945, Patrick Modiano began to write in his twenties.
His first book "La Place de l'etoile" was published in 1968.
Peter Englund, Permanent Secretary of Swedish Academy, explains why they chose Modiano for this year's prize.
"He writes about very interesting and general topics, he is writing about time, memory, identity, and he is doing it in a very refined and elegant way, he is doing it in a pretty way, he has very very precise style."
Englund also says Modiano's writing style is similar to that of other Nobel laureates, including China's Mo Yan.
"The same thing as Moyan, and Alice Munro, they are very much connected to specific places, Moyan with Shandong, and Alice Munro about her part of Canada, that is a very explainable paradox for an author very general, they are often connected to the local the local place."
The city of Paris plays heavily in Modiano's works.
Englund says his writing reflects a different time for the readers in the French capital.
"I would say he gives us help to understand the intricacies of memory how difficult it is to reach back and understand early versions of yourself and to understand what happens 30 years ago, the problems with understanding but at the same time you can't get away from it, you must try to reach out through time and understand yourself and understand what happened."
This year's Nobel Peace Prize is due to be announced later on this Friday in Oslo, Norway.
For CRI, this is Chen Xuefei reporting from Stockholm.
