Jorge Luis Borges (18 page)

THE LAST INTERVIEW SERIES

KURT VONNEGUT: THE LAST INTERVIEW

“I think it can be tremendously refreshing if a creator of literature has something on his mind other than the history of literature so far. Literature should not disappear up its own asshole, so to speak.”

LEARNING TO LIVE FINALLY: THE LAST INTERVIEW JACQUES DERRIDA

“I am at war with myself, it’s true, you couldn’t possibly know to what extent … I say contradictory things that are, we might say, in real tension; they are what construct me, make me live, and will make me die.”

ROBERTO BOLAÑO: THE LAST INTERVIEW

“Posthumous: It sounds like the name of a Roman gladiator, an unconquered gladiator. At least that’s what poor Posthumous would like to believe. It gives him courage.”

DAVID FOSTER WALLACE: THE LAST INTERVIEW

“I don’t know what you’re thinking or what it’s like inside you and you don’t know what it’s like inside me. In fiction … we can leap over that wall itself in a certain way.”

JORGE LUIS BORGES: THE LAST INTERVIEW

“Believe me: the benefits of blindness have been greatly exaggerated. If I could see, I would never leave the house, I’d stay indoors reading the many books that surround me.”

JORGE LUIS BORGES
(1899–1986) was an Argentine author, essayist, poet, translator, lecturer, and librarian who gained worldwide recognition after receiving, in 1961, the first International Publishers Prize, which he shared with Samuel Beckett. Borges wrote innovative fiction combining the fantastic, and is best known for the short-story collections
Ficciones
(1944) and
The Aleph
(1949). He died in Geneva in 1986.

RICHARD BURGIN
, the editor of the literary magazine
Boulevard
and the winner of five Pushcart Prizes for his stories, is the author of sixteen books, including two novels, nine collections of stories, and two books of nonfiction,
Conversations with Isaac Bashevis Singer
and
Conversations with Jorge Luis Borges
.

DANIEL BOURNE
has edited
Artful Dodge
since its inception in 1979. His books of poetry include
The Household Gods
and
Where No One Spoke the Language
. He teaches English at the College of Wooster.

STEPHEN CAPE
(1953–2010) was a longtime cataloger of rare books at the Lilly Library at Indiana University. He was also the poetry editor for
Artful Dodge
during the early 1980s.

CHARLES SILVER
is a visual artist and former editor of
Artful Dodge
.

GLORIA LÓPEZ LECUBE
was born in Buenos Aires. She has worked as a journalist in print, radio, and television, and also managed two radio stations. She interviewed Borges in 1985, just before he left Argentina for Geneva.

KIT MAUDE
is a Buenos Aires–based translator and editor.