Thursday, September 30, 2010

The Paris Review interviewed Isak Dinesen in 1956:

DINESEN

I live on the North Sea, halfway between Copenhagen and Elsinore.

INTERVIEWER

Perhaps halfway between Shiraz and Atlantis?

DINESEN

. . . Halfway between that island in The Tempest and wherever I am.

(Waiter takes order; luncheon is served.)

DINESEN

I'll have a cigarette now. Do you mind if we just stay here for a while? I hate to change once I'm installed in a décor I like. People are always telling me to hurry up or come on and do this or do that. Once when I was sailing around the Cape of Good Hope and there were albatrosses, people kept saying, “Why do you stay on deck? Come on in.” They said, “It's time for lunch,” and I said, “Damn lunch.” I said, “I can eat lunch any day, but I shan't see albatrosses again.” Such win
gspread!

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