Tuesday, November 03, 2009

See to it that Wonderful Things Happen to You

In a letter to poets in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, Russian Nobel laureate Boris Pasternak observed:

“One must write wonderful things, make discoveries, and see to it that wonderful things happen to you. That is life. The rest is rubbish.”

Thomas Merton, ‘The Literary Essays of Thomas Merton’ ed. Patrick Hart. New York: New Directions, 1981, 89-90.

Thanks to Paul Dekar who uses this quote in a soon to be published new book.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: Boris Pasternak.