Philippe Djian (born 1949 in Paris) is a popular French author of Armenian descent. Djian graduated from the ESJ Paris. After a period of wandering and odd jobs, he published a volume of short stories, "50 contre 1" (1981), and then the novels "Bleu comme l'enfer" (1982) and "Zone érogène" (1984) before gaining fame with his subsequent novels "37°2 le matin" (1985) which was filmed by Jean-Jacques Beineix (1986; English title "Betty Blue"), "Maudit Manège" (1986), "Echine" (1988), "Crocodiles" (short stories) (1989), "Lent dehors" (1991), "Sotos" (1993), and "Assassins" (1994).