True gaiety is based on a foundation of realism. All right, we know we're dying, we know we're poor, that is off our minds—we eat, sleep, make merry but we are not kidding ourselves that we are rich and beautiful or that Santa Claus and two blondes will soon come down the chimney.... Gaiety should be brave, it should have stout legs of truth, not a gelatine base of dreams and wishes.

Diary entry [May 22,1939]