A Conversation with E. M. Forster

Abstract

The introductions over, it was E. M. F. and not I who broke into the desultory chatter to suggest that the interview might begin. ‘I don’t suppose’, he said, ‘that this is what you want to talk about.…’ I write ‘said’ and I also write four dots because E. M. R speaks in quick, little bursts of words which end, as it seems, inconclusively, and then he usually adds one or two words more, which though they seem tangential, nevertheless are often the real core of what he is saying. It is as though a firework did its stuff adequately but not excitingly, never fizzling but hardly illuminating, and then just as the onlookers are about to give a polite smile and say ‘very pretty’ in a slightly disappointed tone, there shoot up one or two very bright lights that in turn fade away, making one wish for more. But E. M. F.’s indecisive, spasmodic manner seemed to me to contain (‘to mask’ would imply all sorts of intention of which I saw no sign) firm decision. I had expected and intended to call to order for the interview to begin; it was in fact, he who did so. No doubt, he would say, that this was part of his duties as host — duties to which he gave continuous and subtle attention. Nevertheless he led the way and I think it marked an underlying determination that continued throughout our meeting.

Encounter, vol. IX, no. 5 (November 1957) 52–7.