You must be about the same age I
was when I began writing--when I wanted above anything to write a book
like that, and when such a book seemed the most impossible thing I could
do. Like trying to swim the Atlantic, or live forever.
THE BOY
It seemed impossible? I should think it would be the most natural thing in
the world, for _you_--like eating dinner.
THE MAN
That's the wonderful thing--not the book, but that _I_ should have come to
write it!
THE BOY
But who else could write it?
THE MAN
At your age I thought anybody could--anybody and everybody except myself.
THE BOY
Really?
THE MAN
Really and truly. You've no idea what a useless misfit I was.
THE BOY
But I read somewhere you had always been brilliant, even as a boy.
THE MAN
Unfortunately ... yes. That was what made it so hard for me. Shall I tell
you about it?
THE BOY
I wish you would!
THE MAN
Brilliance--I'll tell you what that was, at least for me. I wrote several
things that people called "brilliant." One in particular, a little play of
decadent epigram. It was acted by amateurs before an admiring "select"
audience.
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