Death in Venice

by Thomas Mann

Loneliness brings forth what is original, daringly and shockingly beautiful: the poetic. But loneliness also brings forth the perverse, the disproportionate, the absurd, and the illicit.

Thus, in his infatuation, he wanted simply to pursue unceasingly the object that aroused him, to dream of it when it was not there, and, after the fashion of lovers, to speak softly to its mere shadow.