Pirandello - Mattia Pascal

My name was Mattia Pascal: it was one of the few, perhaps the only thing I knew for sure. And I made the most of it.
Every time a friend or acquaintance of mine seemed to have lost enough common sense to ask me for advice or a suggestion, I shrugged my shoulders, half-closed my eyes and said :
My name is Mattia Pascal.
Thank you, my dear, I know.
And you're not impressed?
To tell the truth, I wasn't very impressed myself. But at that time I ignored what it meant not to know, not to be able to answer, I mean, as before, when asked:
My name is Mattia Pascal.

......Lugi Pirandello Il fu Mattia Pascal

First sentences translation by Véronique Wilkin