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Paris 1956
I’ve always lived my life rather vicariously through my art, which I suppose is an ironic way of saying that the circumstances of my life usually left me starving three days out of four. The major reason being that I frightened people—frighten I should say, let’s be honest here and use the present tense, because I still frighten them, no matter what they may say. I’m ugly by any man’s standards. First of all, I’m a dwarf, in case you don’t know me through my art. And as a dwarf, I’m disproportionate, my body misshapen by a twisted torso; my legs are bowed and my left foot clubbed. As disproportionate as my body is, so too my face with its mismatched eyes, bulbous nose and oversized ears; needless to say, I wasn’t a beautiful child. I once saw a poster outside a cinema where they were showing the Lon Chaney movie Notre Dame; that poster could’ve been me I used to think as I walked…
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