Thursday, June 27, 2013 ********************************* FROM THE DIARY OF A NOBODY ***************************************** My ambition, my real ambition in life is to introduce humor in hell. * Armenians have a legal mind: they never ask a question whose answer they don’t already know. An Armenian in search of wisdom is like a Greek bearing gifts. * Confronted by total annihilation men may learn to co-exist. As for Armenians: I am not sure about them. After all, every rule must have its exceptions. * I was asked once to translate the diary of an unknown and unpublished writer on the grounds that “he could be another Shakespeare.” * On another occasion I was asked to translate a poem on the grounds that after reading it a friend of the family had said: “This should be translated!” # IF ********* If you say Turks are the scum of the earth, I ask: What’s the difference between them and the rest of the world? * If you say there is nothing wrong in hating a bad writer who spreads lies, I ask: What about incompetent leaders who lead the nation to genocide? * Why does the average smart Armenian allow himself to be brainwashed by charlatans? The obvious answer must be: Because it allows him to live in a fantasy world wherein (a) Armenians are the good guys, (b) They are God’s chosen, and (c) their military defeats are moral victories. * Am I saying anything you don’t already know? * Armenians in the Ottoman Empire and the USSR: they remind me of myself as a child when I respected no one and feared everyone. # IT BEARS REPEATING ********************************** They call me negative because my favorite subject is not massacres. * Everything I say to my fellow Armenians, American, French, English, German, and Russian writers have said about their fellow countrymen. * Mankind has been and continues to be at the mercy of hoodlums – Goebbels not Goethe, Hitler not Hesse, Richard III not Shakespeare, Stalin not Solzhenitsyn. * In the eyes of their contemporaries neither Socrates nor Jesus were successes. I wonder how many Greek mothers were overheard saying to their sons, “Behave! Do you want to end up like Socrates?” And Jewish mothers… * Never speak kindly of yourself: no one will believe you. * Why do I write as I do? The answer must be: Because I am no longer dependent on the charity of swine. #