Michael Dirda reviewed the biography Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic last week, but I’m only just getting around to it.

I used to think I’d like to meet George Orwell, but after reading the following paragraph … not so much.

Actually, I don’t think I’d have liked either of these guys.

Scammell relates this telling exchange between the author of Darkness at Noon and the author of Nineteen Eighty-Four: George Orwell said, “When I lie in my bath in the morning, which is the best moment of the day, I think of tortures for my enemies.” Koestler replied, “That’s funny, because when I’m lying in my bath I think of tortures for myself.”

Both of them apparently had seductive personalities, but when you got within their orbits—watch out!

And speaking of quips exchanged between authors, here’s another one recently related in the pages of the Washington Post, this one from Erich Segal’s obituary:

While jogging in New York’s Central Park, Mr. Segal once recalled, he saw novelist Philip Roth and said, “I admire your work.”

“And I admire your running,” Roth replied.

What do you think? An actual incident or only an apocryphal one?