E. M. Cioran

We have spent a little over an hour together.  He has used the time to show off, and by dint of trying to say interesting things about himself, has succeeded.  If he had merely swaggered in moderaion, I should have found him a bore and left in a few minutes.  By exaggerating, by playing the peacock to perfection, he has come close enough to wit to show some.  The desire to appear subtle does not destroy subtlety.  A mental defective, if he could feel the longing to astonish, would manage to deceive us - would even catch up with intelligence.


-from, 'The Trouble with being Born'