“Q. Are you yourself as an individual conscious of any particular failing of yourself?
“A. I mean, are you asking me to confess to some moral lapse, or to inadequacy in talent?
“Q. Well. I should like to ask you to confess to some particular moral lapse, but what I really mean is what—in what respect do you as a human being feel that you have primarily failed?
“A. I have never learned French well, and I never learned any other language at all; I’ve forgotten most of my classics; I can’t often remember people’s faces in the streets; and I don’t like music. Those are very grave failings.”
Evelyn Waugh, interviewed on “Frankly Speaking,” BBC, Nov. 16, 1953
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