Vows are spoken

“If I had to define myself by a virtue, I wouldn’t know which to choose. None of my virtues, be they many or few, could ever compete with my principal fault, my biggest sin, which I wouldn’t hesitate to name as my defining trait. Because if I’m anything I’m proud- so extremely, exceedingly proud, that I owe a great deal of my strength to this weakness. Pride is at the root of my ambition and my tenacity; pride keeps me free from such literary passions as vanity and envy- you can only experience these if you believe that others are on the same level as you- and pride has been responsible for most of the upsets, disappointments, failures and humiliations I’ve endured in my life. There is no harder fall than the fall of someone who is proud, nor astonishment as great as that which the proud person feels as they fall. Nor is there a stimulus- at least I don’t know of any- as strong as that which makes a proud person grit their teeth with rage.”

(Almudena Grandes)

~ by Roxana pe aprilie 5, 2008.