in 1983 i saw a movie called passione d amore that was directed by ettore scola and i knew immediately i wanted to make a musical of it it has a weird story it s about an ugly sickly woman in the nineteenth century who falls in love with a handsome soldier and the surprise of the story is somehow he falls in love with her through the sheer force of her love for him i gave it to james lapine and we wrote passion i so enjoyed the novel by rousseau it s wonderful my favorite really the character of julie is a great mystery then you should have kept it longer to meditate on i do not read to think i do not read to learn i do not read to search for truth i know the truth the truth is hardly what i need i read to dream i read to live in other people s lives i read about the joys the world dispenses to the fortunate and listen for the echoes i read to live to get away from life no captain i have no illusions i recognize the limits of my dreams i know how painful dreams can be unless you know they re merely dreams there is a flower which offers nectar at the top delicious nectar at the top and bitter poison underneath the butterfly that stays too long and drinks too deep is doomed to die i read to fly to skim i do not read to swim i do not dwell on dreams i know how soon a dream becomes an expectation how can i have expectations look at me no captain look at me look at me i do not hope for what i cannot have i do not cling to things i cannot keep the more you cling to things the more you love them the more the pain you suffer when they re taken from you ah but if you have no expectations captain you can never have a disappointment during the course of the story fosca pursues giorgio relentlessly she humiliates him in public she follows him in public she embarrasses him in public until finally she pushes him over the edge 