random post #3: perfect quote

[winterbadger]

"Above all, I wanted him to be clever. I always admired people who were enormously clever, you know, bigwigs from Oxford and so on. I was always almost clever, but not quite."

--- Colin Dexter, talking about his creation, Inspector Morse

That's very much the way I feel; I really couldn't have said it better: "almost clever, but not quite.". :-)

Comments

[pisica.livejournal.com]

Well, but 'clever' has a hint of superficiality about it - or maybe I'm just thinking of that book review from 1915 about one of my author's works, in which 'clever' is clearly a synonym for 'oh yes it's terribly amusing but not much depth to it'. @:)

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

I like that

[winterbadger]

Hmmm, in some contexts it does, true, but the way Dexter meant it, it means "really, really smart"; he was describing his desire to create a character who had the top-flight intellect that Dexter felt he himself never quite managed to achieve.

[pisica.livejournal.com]

Goood morning! :)

Yeah, I can understand that - I was always smart, but never top of the pinnacle smart. Magna cum laude rather than summa. I'm cool about it, though. :)

[winterbadger]

Love the icon. :-)

G'morning! Ack, Rupert and I should get going before it rains...

[winterbadger]

:-)