“Sometimes, walking through the forest, as night fell, he did want to lie down on the ground and look at the stars. Yes, it was true. There were times when he felt that same melancholia his worst patients described, a sadness the size of the universe, which expanded in space, which recognised no borders, a cosmic sadness. But they were only moments. That’s what a sane person is, he thought, somebody capable of experiencing sadness for a moment and then setting it aside.” —Antonio Xerxenesky