Said’s public polemic contrasted sharply with his private gentleness

Evidence

Edward Said, who died on 25 September 2003, had many friends and even more admirers. He was handsome and always sharp-suited. He was also stylish, sensitive, witty, learned and cultured. He played the piano and was exceptionally knowledgeable about classical music. He was a subtle and well-respected literary critic. An intellectual himself, he had always taken the duties of the intellectual extremely seriously. He was also a tireless campaigner for Palestinian rights and was appropriately sceptical about the Oslo agreement and the later ‘road map’ for peace in the Middle East. He opposed the corrupt and oppressive regime of Yasser Arafat and his coterie of favoured friends on the West Bank. When not actually engaged in furious debate with those whom he had identified as Zionist and imperialist enemies (and he took no hostages in debate), he was by all accounts a gentle and soft-spoken man. — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 500