“The ghosts of ideas and people move in and out of time and mind, liable to appear in quotidian moments. Shortly after first sitting down to begin this conversation, Macksey asked his guest for a match. A shuffling through the stacks of papers and books that cover the table in his library soon followed. His guest found a match‑book and held it up. “No, they’re empty,” Macksey says, before noticing the script logo of a Swiss tobacco manufacturer on the cover. “They’re Davidoff. I haven’t had Davidoff since Jacques Derrida was here.””