Writing

' A poet can endure anything. Which amounts to saying that a human being can endure anything. Except that its not true:there are obviously limits to what a human being can endure. Really endure. A poet, on the other hand, can endure anything. We grew up with this conviction. The opening assertion is true, but that way lie ruin, madness, and death."

From Roberto Bolano's "Enrique Martin"