Henderson the Rain King

 
Sunset in Kenya - Masai Mara

“There is that poem about the nightingale singing that humankind cannot stand too much reality. But how much unreality can it stand? Do you follow? You understand me?”

“Me unnastand, sah.”

“I fired that question right back at the nightingale. So what if reality may be terrible? It’s better than what we’ve got.”

“Kay, sah. Okay.”

“All right, I let you out of it. It’s better than what I’ve got. But every man feels from his soul that he has got to carry his life to a certain depth. Well, I have got to go on because I haven’t reached that depth yet. You get it?”

“Yes, sah.”

— Saul Bellow, Henderson the Rain King

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