Art too is just a way of
living, and however one lives, one can, without knowing, prepare for it; in
everything real one is closer to it, more its neighbor, than in the unreal
half-artistic professions, which, while they pretend to be close to art, in
practice deny and attack the existence of all art - as, for example, all of
journalism does and almost all criticism and three quarters of what is called
(and wants to be called) literature. I am glad, in a word, that you have
overcome the danger of landing in one of those professions, and are solitary
and courageous, somewhere in a rugged reality. May the coming year support and
strengthen you in that.