I find it preposterous and, even more than that, myopic in you to have let several months pass without getting in touch with me.

On the other hand I am best off alone.

More and more I am coming to think of the firm as an anonymous, adversarial force.  Do something to enfeeble this impression.

Most of the time just thinking about Suhrkamp is enough to make me lose my temper.

Perhaps we should get together sometime.

Or perhaps not.

Indifference helps me across all the mountains of rubbish.

One cannot be enough of an adversary.

The water level of dimwittedness is rising.

[...] Respond to this sentence when you happen to be going through a phase when you have a sense of humor.

[...] I would be saying a lot if I were further to remark that it would be pointless to make a single further remark.

We are all standing on an ice sheet of misunderstanding.  And so we would do best not to make any sudden moves, lest we tumble into the water.

It would be fine by me if you replied immediately.

Take it all as you will

Thomas Bernhard to Siegfried Unseld, his editor at Suhrkamp, in a letter from 1972 (translated by Douglas Robertson)