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Ques: Could you say more about Jasper? How do you feel about him as a person?

Leo: Well, he's quite...quite incredible character. It is very difficult I think to penetrate his outer shell. He will reveal himself only to a very few friends. Or perhaps sometimes when he's very, very gay then he'll loosen up. But generally speaking he will be very, very spare and uncommunicative. What else could one say about him? Well he has had incredible success very early. He became well known, very well known, and accepted, not only here in the States but also abroad...Almost a mythical figure in a very short time. How did that affect him. People are always worried about that. They say that a man who, at the age of twenty eight or so, or thirty let's say, who acquires fame so rapidly will be spoiled by success. Well I don't think that Jasper was. And I think that, well, if somebody is a genius, as I believe he is, nothing will be able to hold him back. You can't sort of prudently try to avoid exposing him so that then he can be spared for greater feats later on. After all -- Raphael, Montaigne, and so on produced masterpieces when they were very young and many of them went on -- well, some died young like Raphael - but Montaigne went on and on and on doing masterpieces at...in later years. So I think it didn't actually affect him except that it created, as it does for all important ________ painters, problems of how to go on, where to go on from the [[strikethrough]][[imer]][[/strikethrough]] imagery that he created during the first [[strikethrough]], [[/strikethrough]] years.

Transcription Notes:
[[?]] near end is "imer" needs to reflect in transcription