“I have seen such things—” said Aquinas. “I have seen such things—” said John of the Cross. “I have seen such things—” said Plato. And they all lived out the rest of their lives in a glorious daze.
“Camille Claudel lived the last thirty years of her life in an asylum, wondering why, writing letters to her brother the poet, who had signed the papers. Come visit me, she says. Remember I am living here with madwomen, days are long. She did not smoke or stroll. She refused to sculpt. Although they gave her sleep stones – marble and granite and porphyry – she broke them, then collected the pieces and buried these outside the walls at night. Night was when her hands grew, huger and huger until in the photograph they are like two parts of someone else loaded onto her knees.”
Anne Carson | “Short Talk on Sleep Stones”