Brenda Ueland:

And in every sentence, no matter what horror, evil and misery a truly great book my describe, I know that I seem to have a feeling of wonderful gratitude and hope (really and literally I can hardly read a Chekhov of Tolstoi without a kind of obstruction in my throat of grateful emotion), for I say to myself: at least there has lived in the world a great man like this writer -- too great to be a brilliant know-it-all, too kind to be a satirist. If this is so, I am glad I live in this world too and believe in God and all His creations.

If You Want to Write, p. 125