For my own part, I declare I know nothing whatever about it. But to look at the stars
always makes me dream, as simply as I dream over the black dots of a map representing
towns and villages. Why, I ask myself, should the shining dots of the sky not be as
accessible as the black dots on the map of France? If we take the train to get to
Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star. One thing undoubtedly true in this
reasoning is this: that while we are alive we cannot get to a star, any more than when
we are dead we can take the train.
-Vincent van Gogh, Letter to Theo van Gogh, July 9,
