In every living thing there is the desire for love. One must learn to love, and go through a good deal of suffering to get to it... and the journey is always towards the other soul. Love is the flower of life, and blossoms unexpectedly and without law, and must be plucked where it is found, and enjoyed for the brief hour of its duration. It is so much more difficult to live with one's body than with one's soul. One's body is so much more exacting: what it won't have it won't have, and nothing can make bitter into sweet. I cannot cure myself of that most woeful of youth's follies--thinking that those who care about us will care for the things that mean much to us. I can't bear art that you can walk round and admire. A book should be either a bandit or a rebel or a man in the crowd. I feel I cannot touch humanity, even in thought, it is abhorrent to me. But a work of art is an act of faith, as Michael Angelo says, and one goes on writing, to the unseen witnesses. I know the greatness of Christianity; it is a past greatness.... I live in 1924, and the Christian venture is done. I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself. I shall always be a priest of love. |