Janet

Dear Valeria,

So who's more adult - somebody who works like mad to avoid a problem or somebody who works like mad to solve it?

Best regards,

Janet Kagan

Leonard

Dear Valeria,

A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.

LLAP,

Leonard Nimoy

Lucille

Dear Valeria,

won’t you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
what did i see to be except myself?
i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand holding tight
my other hand; come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.

the warmest hug,
Lucille Clifton

Doris

Dear Valeria,

I was filled with such a dangerous delicious intoxication that I could have walked straight off the steps into the air, climbing on the strength of my own drunkenness into the stars. And the intoxication, as I knew even then, was the recklessness of infinite possibility.

All the best,

Doris Lessing

François

My dearest Vale,

When humor can be made to alternate with melancholy, one has a success, but when the same things are funny and melancholic at the same time, it's just wonderful.

All my love,

François Truffaut

Djuna

Dear Valeria,

I was doing well enough until you came along and kicked my stone over, and out I came, all moss and eyes.

Yours,

Djuna Barnes

Robert

Dear Valeria,

I will that as soone as I am trespassed out of this worlde that ye take my harte owte of my body, and embawme it, and take of my treasoure as ye shall thynke sufficient for that enterprise, both for your selfe and suche company as ye wyll take with you, and present my hart to the holy Sepulchre where as our Lorde laye, seyng my body can nat come there.

Lang may yer lung reek,

Robert the Bruce

Joey

Dear Valeria,



Boo!

Joseph Grimaldi

Tanith

Dear Valeria,

The entire hotel, which called itself The Queen, had a forlorn, winter appearance, and few guests. Madame Ghoule, for it had been she who interviewed me, was a formidable barrel of a woman. The interview had consisted of her terse remarks on my proposed duties, and the evidence that I looked too skinny to be able to do any of it; was I therefore strong enough? I lied that I was, which she at once accepted.

Yours,

Tanith Lee

Tommaso

Diletta Valeria,

Man lives in a double world: according to the mind he is contained by no physical space and by no walls, but at the same time he is in heaven and on earth, in Italy, in France, in America, wherever the mind's thrust penetrates and extends by understanding, seeking, mastering. But indeed according to the body he exists not, except in only so much space as is least required, held fast in prison and in chains to the extent that he is not able to be in or to go to the place attained by his intellect and will, nor to occupy more space than defined by the shape of his body; while with the mind he occupies a thousand worlds.

vostro,

Tommaso Campanella

Edward

Dear Valeria,

Well, I've always been interested in approaching a big city in a train, and I can't exactly describe the sensations, but they're entirely human and perhaps have nothing to do with aesthetics.

Kind Regards,

Edward Hopper

Eleonora

Cara Valeria,

To save the theatre, the theatre must be destroyed, the actors and actresses must all die of the plague. They poison the air, they make art impossible. It is not drama that they play, but pieces for the theatre. We should return to the Greek, play in the open air; the drama dies of stalls and boxes and evening dress, and people who come to digest dinner.

Ibsen is like this room where we are sitting, with all the tables and chairs. Do I care whether you have twenty or twenty-five links on your chain? Hedda Gabler, Nora and the rest: it is not that I want! I want Rome and the Coliseum, the Acropolis, Athens; I want beauty, and the flame of life.

Ciao!

Duse

Leon Battista

Dear Valeria,

Painting possesses a truly divine power in that not only does it make the absent present (as they say of friendship), but it also represents the dead to the livings many centuries later.

Yours,

Leon Battista Alberti

Amelia

Dear Valeria,

"Come what may," said I aloud, "I will see what lies beyond this door!"
And with this I opened it.” 

my best to you and your little friend from the Nile,

Amelia Edwards

Saul

Ciao,

Saul Steinberg

Edina

Mia cara Valeria,

Ciao,

Edina Altara

Sarah

My dear Valeria,

There lived in the northern parts of England, a gentlewoman who undertook the education of young ladies; and this trust she endeavoured faithfully to discharge, by instructing those committed to her care in reading, writing, working, and in all proper forms of behaviour. And though her principal aim was to improve their minds in all useful knowledge; to render them obedient to their superiors, and gentle, kind, and affectionate to each other; yet did she not omit teaching them an exact neatness in their persons and dress, and a perfect gentility in their whole carriage.

With affection and regard, I remain,

Sarah Fielding

Anthony

Dear Valeria,

What I did not realise is that I was so naïve politically that I was not justified in committing myself to any political action of this kind. The atmosphere in Cambridge was so intense, the enthusiasm for any anti-fascist activity was so great, that I made the biggest mistake of my life.

All best,

Anthony Blunt

Ross

Dear Valeria,

I always find myself wanting humanists to think about using the net for more than "let's just do what we've always done, only on line now" (the BMCR syndrome, if you will).

Cheers,

Allen Ross Scaife

Věra

Dear Valeria,

I was daring enough to want absolute freedom, even if it was a mistake.

Best,

Věra Chytilová