People between twenty and forty are not sympathetic. The child has the capacity to do but it can’t know. It only knows when it is no longer able to do ---- after forty. Between twenty and forty the will of the child to do gets stronger, more dangerous, but it has not begun to learn to know yet. Since his capacity to do is forced into channels of evil through environment and pressures, man is strong before he is moral. The world’s anguish is caused by people between twenty and forty.
William Faulkner: Interview in Writers at Work (First Series, ed. by Malcolm Cowley)
二十岁至四十岁之间的人不懂得惺惺惜惺惺。孩子有这份能力却茫然不知。到了再也无法抱以同情的时侯，孩子才刚刚懂得 ---- 年过四十了。二十岁至四十岁之间，孩子的意志确实变得比较坚强、比较危险，可是尚未开始学会同情。因为由于环境和压力，他的这份能力身不由己地被引入了歪门邪道，人先变得坚强后懂得道德。世界上的痛苦是由二十岁至四十岁之间的人造致的。
威廉• 福克纳：《作家访谈录》，第一集，马尔科姆• 考利编 |
