I Am Not An Academic Who Happens

Think Of This - That The Writer Wrote Alone, And The Reader Read Alone, And They Were Alone With Each Other.

A Beautiful Woman, Simone Weil Said, Seeing Herself In The Mirror, Knows "this Is I." An Ugly Woman Knows With Equal Certainty, "this Is Not I." Maud Knew This Neat Division Represented An Over-simplification. The Doll-mask She Saw Had Nothing To Do With Her, Nothing.

I'm Not Very Interested In Myself. I Do Have A Deep Moral Belief That You Should Always Look Out At Other Things And Not Be Self-centred.

I Watch A Lot Of Sport On Television. I Only Watch Certain Sports, And I Only Watch Them Live - I Don't Think I've Ever Been Able To Watch A Replay Of A Match Or Game Of Which The Result Was Already Decided. I Feel Bound To Cheat And Look Up What Can Be Looked Up.

A Surprising Number Of People - Including Many Students Of Literature - Will Tell You They Haven't Really Lived In A Book Since They Were Children.