Louis

Dear Valeria, 

The monster which is shown in the figure appeared in Buenos Aires on August 26. The contrast of three resemblances which it had, that of a child, a horse, and a calf, surprised all who saw it. I asked the person who showed it to me if I could examine it in order to describe it faithfully, but he never allowed me to do this. I examined it from quite close and drew its principal traits without his noticing. As soon as I returned to my room, having all the information about the monster vividly in my memory, it furnished what was missing from the drawing. I completed it and represented it in its natural color.


Best,

Louis Feuilée

Gabo

Dear Valeria,

I dare to think that it is this outsized reality, and not just its literary expression, that has deserved the attention of the Swedish Academy of Letters. A reality not of paper, but one that lives within us and determines each instant of our countless daily deaths, and that nourishes a source of insatiable creativity, full of sorrow and beauty, of which this roving and nostalgic Colombian is but one cipher more, singled out by fortune. Poets and beggars, musicians and prophets, warriors and scoundrels, all creatures of that unbridled reality, we have had to ask but little of imagination, for our crucial problem has been a lack of conventional means to render our lives believable. This, my friends, is the crux of our solitude.

Best regards,

Gabriel García Márquez

Marie

Ma chère Valeria,

Ah ! comme vous dites, il faut glisser sur bien des pensées, et ne faire pas semblant de les voir.

A bientôt,

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné

Yasunari

Valeria-chan

Maybe vagueness has been good for me. The word means two different things in Tokyo and Osaka, you know. In Tokyo it means stupidity, but in Osaka they talk about vagueness in a painting and in a game of Go.

Best wishes

Yasunari Kawabata

Joey

Dear Valeria,

I enjoyed my life when I had nothing... and kinda like the idea of just being happy with me.

Love,

Joey Ramone

Gianni

Mia cara Valeria,

Se un bambino scrive nel suo quaderno «l'ago di Garda», ho la scelta tra correggere l'errore con un segnaccio rosso o blu, o seguirne l'ardito suggerimento e scrivere la storia e la geografia di questo «ago» importantissimo, segnato anche nella carta d'Italia.
[…] Un «libbro» con due b sarà soltanto un libro più pesante degli altri, o un libro sbagliato, o un libro specialissimo?

I miei ossequi,

Gianni Rodari

Annie

Dear Valeria,

I am sometimes very dissatisfied with my life here. I do want to accomplish something, so badly. There are so many things that I could do if I only had the money. And when I think that I might be teaching and making money, and still all the time improving myself it makes me feel unhappy and as if I were not doing all that I can.

Best regards,

Annie Jump Cannon

Alan

Dear Valeria,

When I go up there, which is my intention, the Big Judge will say to me, Where are your wounds? and if I say I haven’t any, he will say, Was there nothing to fight for? I couldn’t face that question.

Fight.

Alan Paton

Joseph

Dear Valeria,

In making my first appearance before the public, who have treated me well — in fact I may say I am as comfortable now as I was uncomfortable before.

I am Yours Truly,

Joseph Merrick

Doris

Dear Valeria,

I was so arrogant to believe that the film-makers would follow my book very very closely, as for the script, I was like 'Is this my story?', but it's a matter of knowing and seeing the point of view of the film-makers. I was coming from a writer's perspective so I had to shift a little too to realise how the book makes a good film, makes a good story. Also, I was script consultant so I was there to see that no indigenous culture was breached and see that they respected the Aboriginal people's express wishes. When I asked my mother for permission to write the book she said, 'Yes, you can write the book, tell the story but don't talk about forbidden subjects.'

Best regards,

Doris Pilkington Garimara

Dante Gabriel

Dear Valeria,

From this wave-wash'd mound
Unto the furthest flood-brim look with me;
Then reach on with thy thought till it be drown'd.
Miles and miles distant though the last line be,
And though thy soul sail leagues and leagues beyond,—
Still, leagues beyond those leagues, there is more sea.

Love,

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Francis

Dear Valeria,

My mind is calm, for my fortune is not my felicity. I know I have clean hands and a clean heart, and I hope a clean house for friends or servants; but Job himself, or whoever was the justest judge, by such hunting for matters against him as hath been used against me, may for a time seem foul, especially in a time when greatness is the mark and accusation is the game.

Sincerely,

Sir Francis Bacon

Erik Axel

Dear Valeria,

It whispers; all is waiting here
Kept safe for thee, year after year,
Beautiful songs in thousands;
Where hast thou been, where, where?

All the best,

Erik Axel Karlfeldt

William

Dear Valeria,

Invisible things are the only realities; invisible things alone are the things that shall remain.

Love,

William Godwin

Adamantios

Dear Oualeria,

I wrote that many things that were thought to have been discovered in modern times had been known to Hippocrates two thousand years earlier. I defended my ancestors' honour, I spoke up for my coun­try, my friends, my cantor, and everybody on the examining board was pleased.

Kall' imera!

Ἀδαμάντιος Κοραῆς

Saul

Dear Valeria,

I am a phoenix who runs after arsonists.

Best,

Saul Bellow

Catherine Lucille

Dear Valeria,

She was unbinding her turban...
He watched, not breathing, a presentiment of something horrible stirring in his brain, inexplicably... The red folds loosened and — he knew then that he had not dreamed — again a scarlet lock swung down against her cheek... a hair, was it? A lock of hair?... thick as a thick worm it fell, plumply, against that smooth cheek... more scarlet than blood and thick as a crawling worm... and like a worm it crawled.

Best,

C.L. Moore

Carter

Dear Valeria,

When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his "proper place" and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary.

Very best regards,

Carter Godwin Woodson

Paul

Dear Valeria,

That the witch remained invisible, added not a little to the superstitious dread in which she was held. Her child, however, was regarded by the neighbors with mingled sympathy and admiration. They could not understand how she kept her red cheeks and laughing eyes amid such depressing surroundings; they must say, that any one who had at his baptism renounced the devil and all his works, could hardly bring himself to marry a girl out of this haunted house. Yet they watched the graceful little figure as long as they could see her hat-ribbon wave in the wind, and her short skirt blow about her trim ankles.

Kindest regards,

Paul Heyse

Elizabeth

Dear Valeria,

He grinned at her, and she grinned at him, and it seemed to Maria that suddenly the sun came out.

Best regards,

Elizabeth Goudge