"... if I admired the skill of craftsmen, architects and goldsmiths, it was for more subtle and less obvious reasons. Truly, I love and admire all that the human mind creates to make our homes look more natural. The gold of autumn leaves, the bistre of ploughing, the white of snow, the infinitely varied blues of the sky are stolen from us by our walls; we are deprived of it by the cover of roofs, the obstacle of wooden shutters, the curtain of fences. Art is the only way to restore, to our confined interiors, these riches from which we are cut off. "
Jean-Christophe Rufin, Le Grand Coeur. Ed Gallimard 2012
