Leon Trotsky on love, life and literature

'To love life with the superficial affection of the dilettantes and there are dilettantes of life as well as of art is no great merit. To love life with open eyes, with unabating criticism, without illusions, without embellishments, such as it is, whatever it may offer, and even more, for what it can come to be that is a feat of a kind. To invest this love of life with artistic expression, especially when this is concerned with the very lowest social stratum that is a great artistic achievement.'

Leon Trotsky on Jean Malauais, 1939. For some more literary criticism by Trotsky, see here.