Camilo Jose Cela was Premio Cervantes, Nobel Prize Winner—and had a reputation for being outspoken, abrupt and ill-mannered.
The University of Hardknocks has taught me, and many others, some
bitterly-earned lessons which, at times, have led to certain conclusions
that I expect and try to heed. One of those lessons has been that the
more intelligent and truly important a person is, the more humble and
accessible and friendly he is. I would dare venture to say that we could
very well make this conclusion a rule of thumb to live by, and expect
from life.
The riffraff, the hoi polloi, the small fry, the parvenus, are too
bloated with their newly acquired fame and importance, which have gone
to their heads, to bother with the rest of the world. As soon as someone
is given a radio or TV interview, she feels she has reached the Olympus
of politics, literature, science, whatever, and are beyond good and
evil, full of certainties. They scorn the lesser humans and tend to
ignore them.
My first meeting and personal relationship with the Spanish writer
Camilo Jose Cela (1916-2002) started because one fine day I lost my
marbles and decided to compile a serious bilingual Spanish and English
slang dictionary which I finally titled A Spanish and English Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional Language.
Continue reading at VOXXI:
http://voxxi.com/2012/11/28/meeting-camilo-jose-cela-nobel-laureate/
