IL: I think I can more or les intuit what horror understanding represents for him. Yet I still wonder why he doesn't simply kill himself, why he has to do away with seven other people?

HB: Good question. He is simply not the nicest guy in the world. He is as much a villain as he is a hero. He transcends these categories as he transcends any category. He knows too well, he understands too well, he has thought his way to the end of thought. As I read Shakespeare, even though he is humane, he has thought his way into the abys, into nothingnes. Even though Hamlet moves us because there are intimations of transcendence, nevertheles they are of... And I think Shakespeare knows it. I think it's the darkest literary work I have ever read and its implications are shattering.