The Painted Bird

by Jerzy Kosiński

A man had many paths from which to choose, many roads and highways across the country of life. Some were dead ends, others led to swamps, to dangerous traps and snares.

Man carries in himself his own private war, which he has to wage, win or lose, himself—his own justice, which is his alone to administer.

If he is not at peace with himself, if he is harassed by something he did not do but should have done to preserve his own image of himself, he is like the “unhappy Demon, spirit of exile, gliding high above the sinful world.”