Arthur Power:
Joyce met Proust once at a literary dinner, and Proust asked Joyce did he like truffles, and Joyce said yes, he did, and I know Joyce was very amused afterwards. He said ” … the two greatest literary figures of our time meet and they ask each other if they like truffles.”
There seem to be several variants of the story of the Proust/Joyce meeting. One of my favorites, although probably apocryphal, is that Joyce and Proust were sharing a taxi coming home from a party. Joyce was drunk, and in his drunkenness loudly told Proust that he had never read a single page of his work. Proust angrily returned the complement.
hahahahaha