“I had a friend there [in the trenches of the Iran-Iraq war}, whom I liked so much. He was a young poet, very educated and handsome. He had taught himself English and French from reading … Most of the writers that I know are thanks to him. He was always talking about Thomas Mann, James Joyce, and Faulkner. He had read so many European novelists. I don’t think I ever mentioned a writer that he didn’t know.”
The Iraqi Suitcase by Laura Waddington
Source: John Berger, Reading 3, Episode 3, November 2002, Lannan Foundation