“That’s right,” said the engine-driver, still staring with admiring eyes at our dispatcher, “I’m enlarging a seascape from a picture postcard.”

“And what’s wrong with coming out like this and painting from nature?” asked the dispatcher.

“Don’t talk to me about nature, in nature everything shifts about too much,” cried the engine-driver, laughing, and he cast a glance towards the goods wagons and winked; and then they all burst out laughing. “If I painted from nature I should have to reduce everything, instead of enlarging it. Only once did I let myself tangle with nature. I borrowed a stuffed vixen from a school, and arranged her among the underbrush in a wood, and before I could even begin to sketch her, up came a couple of dogs and tore the vixen to pieces! Three hundred crowns! Don’t talk to me about nature!”

~ Bohumil Hrabal, Closely Watched Trains