“You live like this, sheltered, in a delicate world, and you believe you
are living. Then you read a book… or you take a trip… and you discover
that you are not living, that you are hibernating. The symptoms of
hibernating are easily detectable: first, restlessness. The second
symptom (when hibernating becomes dangerous and might degenerate into
death): absence of pleasure. That is all. It appears like an innocuous
illness. Monotony, boredom, death. Millions live like this (or die like
this) without knowing it. They work in offices. They drive a car. They
picnic with their families. They raise children. And then some shock
treatment takes place, a person, a book, a song, and it awakens them and
saves them from death. Some never awaken.”— Anaïs Nin