[Q] Were you aware at that time that you were unusually bright?

I don't think I've ever thought I was unusually bright. I just thought I was brighter than other people, which isn't quite as conceited as it sounds. What I mean is, I noticed when I was better than other people, but I never actually thought that I was very, very good at anything and even now I'm somewhat surprised even when I read a piece of old prose or something of mine and I think... when I think, oh, that's quite good actually. I have a high opinion of myself in company – sometimes, but not unduly elevated. In fact, I'm inclined to think that I have been foolishly modest. There's something quite comic about my saying that, and I'm not unaware of it but the truth is, I've noticed that people who have become very famous as writers or other sorts of persons never ever make the mistake of making any ironic or self-deprecatory remark about themselves. On the whole, people of discovered genius are usually very keen to leave it prominently displayed for discovery. I never quite managed to be conceited enough for that and I think that the Jewish thing, which haunts... haunted me all my life ever since I got to England, has something to do with that. My father was very much against anyone who was pushy or flashy or showy even though he had been a world champion dancer. He never spoke of it. In fact, as I think I wrote somewhere that you haven't... people don't know that modesty was his main conceit or his only conceit, and actually that is very British. I notice that people who win medals in the war never talk about winning medals in the war; people who've won foolish awards talk about their awards a great deal.