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as a very strong boy--strong--I started to work with the nights--at the railroad station--Montparnasse--where they were bringing all kinds of food and vegetables etc. for the market, so I was unloading from twelve to five in the night... [[?]] I think...and--would sleep a little bit before, would sleep a few hours later, and at eight o'clock [[strikethrough]] where I am going--working. [[/strikethrough]] I was going to school. Well, it didn't [[strikethrough]] took [[/strikethrough]] take too long until I became sick. I was working, you know, a spoiled boy with such a hard work, maybe working sixteen hours a day, and I started to couch and become tubercular. And so at that time I had to go for the service, for the military service, and I didn't want to out myself off from my parents, from Russia. So I went over there and I went for this commission, military commission, which dismissed me. So, you see, this terrible thing which happened to me was a marvellous thing because they didn't take me as a soldier, and I didn't desert, I was free, I came back to Paris, I started to work a easier job, and I started to cure myself, and I overcame my illnesses, and overcame all the difficulties. But it was hard--you know, I was working in a factory retouching terra cottas and I became very good on that--you know, this fake 18th-century tin-art.... I was very good....but [[strikethrough]] having [[/strikethrough]] living quite frankly with that, I was.... [[strikethrough]] and until--and [[/strikethrough]] working--until I started to exhibit and then the work came and then I had dinner--[strikethrough]] and [[strikethrough]] I had a hard time. So, that should be a lesson to all of you. Never be discouraged. You know, art is a difficult, a difficult career, especially in this country. But never be discouraged because [[strikethrough]] the revolving stars [[/strikethrough]] turning fortunes are so marvellous. I don't regret a single day of my life. Did I answer your question?

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