"The writing of 'The Courage Machine, ' which covers ten years, was retarded by illness. For a long time I lived beside death. But I had a presentiment that something essential -- something foreseen in New York -- would develop for me during these last years. I was not mistaken. "This book follows an evolution which, for me, is not a curve but an ascending line. There is a beginning and an end; a new beginning, an advance, and a new search; then...