I cannot bring myself to engage in bloodshed, or to take sides.

I have near and dear ones North and South.
I am going away and I shall stay away until the storm blows over.

It may seem to you unpatriotic, and it is, I know, unheroic.

I am not a hero; I am, I hope, an artist.

My world is the world of art, and I must be true to that; it is my patriotism, my religion.