Jacques Derrida: A Personal Testimony 1981-2004

I offer here some memories of my encounters with Derrida over the years. I do so in the spirit of a testimony to his person and philosophy, recalling several exchanges ranging from our first dialogue in Paris in 1982 to later conversations in Dublin and Villanova in the 1990s to our final meeting in New York in 2001. Several of these stories are intimate and anecdotal and I share them as a token of our personal friendship as much as a tribute to Derrida’s persona as a world thinker and writer.