JPMorgan Chase chairman Jamie Dimon’s dramatic falling out with Sandy Weill has passed into financial folklore. The two men had worked very closely together for about 15 years before they took over Citigroup. Dimon was widely seen as Weill’s successor at Citi. But, in 1998, Weill fired Dimon (speculation has it that Dimon passed Weill’s daughter over for a promotion).

Dimon moved on to Bank One in Chicago, turned it around, and merged it with JPMorgan in a deal that ended with him becoming chairman and CEO of JPMorgan. Then, in October 2006, he decided to pull out of subprime loans even as other banks bet huge amounts on them. The result: JPMorgan was the only bank with enough cash to acquire the ailing Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual when they were on the brink of collapse. Today, JPMorgan has surged far ahead of the crisis-ridden Citigroup. So is revenge sweet?

“No,” he said promptly. “I still have a lot of friends there, and what happened was so hard on people. I could play a sport with you and want to beat the hell out of you. But if you break a leg or have a heart attack, I’ll take you to hospital. I truly want Citi to get better. Citi’s problems are bad for Citi, for the people there, for America, and not good for JPMorgan. Also, it’s a terrible mistake to measure yourself by someone else doing badly. I want us to grow for us.