Jean Genet : "The Thief's Journal"
excerpt from the opening chapter (1949) translated by Bernard Frechtman
Convicts’ garb is striped pink and white. Though it was at my heart's bidding that I chose the universe wherein I delight, I at least have the power of finding therein the many meanings I wish to find: there is a close relationship between flowers and convicts. The fragility and delicacy of the former are of the same nature as the brutal insensitivity o…