"What a miracle it is, the telegram that shatters your peace, that gets you up in the night and urges you to the station. ‘Hurry! I need you.’ We quickly discover in life the friends who will help us. But we only slowly deserve those who demand to be helped. No one hated these ghosts of mine, no one envied them, no one pestered them. Nor did anyone love them with the only love that matters. I thought to myself: the moment they get ashore they will be whisked off to cocktail parties to welcome them, dinners to console them. But who will bang on their doors demanding entry? ‘Open up, it’s me!’ One must nurse a child at the breast for a long time before it learns to demand. One must cultivate friends for a long time before they demand the dues of friendship. One must have ruined oneself for generations keeping a crumbling chateau in repair before one learns to love it."
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Letter to a Hostage)
