As Soon As One Is Born, One

Inevitably We Construct Ourselves. Let Me Explain. I Enter This House And Immediately I Become What I Have To Become, What I Can Become: I Construct Myself. That Is, I Present Myself To You In A Form Suitable To The Relationship I Wish To Achieve With You. And, Of Course, You Do The Same With Me.

Do You Believe You Can Know Yourselves If You Don't Somehow Con- Struct Yourselves? Or That I Can Know You If I Don't Construct You In My Way? And Can You Know Me If I Don't Construct You In My Way? We Can Know Only What We Succeed In Giving Form To.

Woe To Him Who Doesn't Know How To Wear His Mask, Be He King Or Pope!

Each Of Us, Face To Face With Other Men, Is Clothed With Some Sort Of Dignity, But We Know Only Too Well All The Unspeakable Things That Go On In The Heart.

When A Character Is Born, He Acquires At Once Such An Independence, Even Of His Own Author, That He Can Be Imagined By Everybody Even In Many Other Situations Where The Author Never Dreamed Of Placing Him; And So He Acquires For Himself A Meaning Which The Author Never Thought Of Giving Him.