Had the privilege of hearing Salman Rushdie speak Sunday night at Emory -- you can read my all-too brief and rushed account here.
It's not easy being the smartest guy in the room -- having once covered an "old-fashioned cross burning" at the home of Howard Stern's favorite Klansman, Daniel Carver, I can relate -- but Rushdie pulled it off with aplomb. Emory is fortunate to have him as its Distinguished Writer in Residence.
I do not like my state of mind; I'm bitter, querulous, unkind. I hate my legs, I hate my hands, I do not yearn for lovely lands. I dread the dawn's recurrent light; I hate to go to bed at night. I snoot at simple, earnest folk. I cannot take the gentlest joke. I find no peace in paint or type. My world is but a lot of tripe. I'm disillusioned, empty-breasted. For what I think, I'd be arrested. I am not sick. I am not well. My quondam dreams are shot to hell. My soul is crushed, my spirit sore: I do not like me any more. I cavil, quarrel, grumble, grouse. I ponder on the narrow house. I shudder at the thought of men. I'm due to fall in love again.
--from Dorothy Parker's "Symptom Recital" (via Markie Post)
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