I'm still in the dark.
LOTH
Well, you know what the colour of his political views was?
HOFFMANN
Oh, yes—green.
LOTH
Put it so, if you want to. You'll have to admit, at all events, that he was a very gifted fellow. And yet for five years he had to work as a stucco-worker, and for another five years he had to starve along, so to speak, on his own hook, and in addition he modelled his little statues.
HOFFMANN
And they were revolting. I want to be cheered by art … No, that kind of art wasn't a bit to my taste.