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Primo Levi PRIMO LEVI
The Art of Fiction No. 140
Interviewed by Gabriel Motola
Issue 134, Spring 1995
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From the Interview
INTERVIEWER
I notice in your work, and even as we talk, that in spite of the things that have happened to you, you show no animosity, no hatred.

LEVI
It's a question of natural hormones. In situations where I should get angry, with my children, for instance, when they were young and it would have been better to have a fit of anger to impress them, well, I was never able to. It's not a virtue, it's a defect. I have many times been praised for my lack of animosity towards the Germans. It's not a philosophical virtue. It's a habit of having my second reactions before the first. So before heating myself to a fit of anger, I begin reasoning. And generally the reason prevails.
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