AZ: Also two-sided, but in a different way than Russia. On the one hand, he was known for a certain arrogance; he was incredibly intelligent and well aware of it. When he met someone new, he would instantly judge whether or not he could like them. I think he would immediately try to gauge someone’s intelligence and see if they read poetry. Poetry was his absolute focal point. If he found out that they did, that person could join ‘his club’ and everything was fine, but he could be disagreeable with people he regarded as philistines. He was an utter chauvinist when it came to the arts, including poetry; they were central to his life.
I heard he was so arrogant that, in the company of Americans, he would even correct them. And he was so forceful that they didn’t dare to say, ‘Joseph, we know best’. He spoke excellent English, but would occasionally use outdated idioms. Every language has idioms that were popular in the 1920s but are now consigned to dictionaries. Brodsky would read dictionaries and sometimes pick up idioms from them. But once he had accepted somebody, he was a great, sensitive, caring friend who would ask how you were feeling or if you were sick.
SG: Do you recall any funny situations with him?
AZ: Let me think… I recall an extremely un-funny situation with him, when we both spent the night at a friend’s house in Cambridge, USA. He had his room, and I had mine. He had some serious heart problems that night, and in the morning I spoke to him as he lay in bed. I saw the fear. He knew that someday his heart would be the death of him. I’d never seen him that way before. I saw a man who was frightened; a man with a bomb ticking in his heart. They never fully cured him. I was amazed to see such existential angst in him, because he was so brilliant in company and loved cracking jokes and laughing.
SG: Brodsky loved America. Do you?
AZ: Brodsky decided never to return to Russia. He spoke excellent English and took an active interest in the language. For me, America was a seasonal place. I was living in France and would go to give lectures for one semester, and I didn’t want to stay in America because I’m very pro-European and I love old cities. I like the Americans I know, but it never occurred to me to settle there. Brodsky felt at home in America and was incredibly successful, quickly joining the elite. He was friends with Susan Sontag, and I think they even had an affair. I also got accepted into that elite somehow, but the main difference was that, for me, the USA was just a semester, then I’d be back in a year. Brodsky had the passport; he was officially American. He never visited Russia, even though he was invited.
SG: The Lithuanian poet Tomas Venclova said that in America he missed the architecture and the Old Town. Was it the same for you?