I love beautiful things that one can touch and handle.

Old brocades, green bronzes, lacquer-work, carved ivories, exquisite surroundings, luxury, pomp--there is much to be got from all these.

But the artistic temperament that they create, or at any rate reveal, is still more to me.

To become the spectator of one's own life, as Harry says, is to escape the suffering of life.

I know you are surprised at my talking to you like this.