Thursday, August 10

from Borges

"People have been unaccountably good to me. I have no enemies, and if certain persons have masqueraded as such, they've been far too good-natured to have ever pained me. Anytime I read something written against me, I not only share the sentiment but feel I could do the job far better myself. Perhaps I should advise would-be enemies to send me their grievances beforehand, with full assurance that they will receive my every aid and support. I have even secretly longed to write, under a pen name, a merciless tirade again myself. Ah, the unvarnished truths I harbor!"

--Jorge Luis Borges, with Norman Thomas di Giovanni

in "An Autobiographical Essay"
in The Aleph and other stories (1933-1969)
[New York: Bantam Books, 1971]