I cannot describe the unmeasurable contempt he put into the two words.
"Don't you want fame? It's something that most artists haven't been indifferent to."
"Children. How can you care for the opinion of the crowd, when you don't care twopence for the opinion of the individual?"
"We're not all reasonable beings," I laughed.
"Who makes fame? Critics, writers, stockbrokers, women."
"Wouldn't it give you a rather pleasing sensation to think of people you didn't know and had never seen receiving emotions, subtle and passionate, from the work of your hands? Everyone likes power. I can't imagine a more wonderful exercise of it than to move the souls of men to pity or terror."
"Melodrama."
"Why do you mind if you paint well or badly?"
"I don't. I only want to paint what I see."
"I wonder if I could write on a desert island, with the certainty that no eyes but mine would ever see what I had written."
Strickland did not speak for a long time, but his eyes shone strangely, as though he saw something that kindled his soul to ecstasy.
"Sometimes I've thought of an island lost in a boundless sea, where I could live in some hidden valley, among strange trees, in silence. There I think I could find what I want."
He did not express himself quite like this. He used gestures instead of adjectives, and he halted. I have put into my own words what I think he wanted to say.
请教老师：
（故事背景，上面故事中I是作家，you是抛弃家庭去学画的画家）
以上I wonder if I could write on a desert island, with the certainty that no eyes but mine would ever see what I had written.中出现的could和would都是虚拟语气使用方法吗？
如何理解这里的could, would使用方法，表示的虚拟语气含义呢？这是对目前或以后的假设虚拟吗？ 顺便请教老师Sometimes I've thought of an island lost...这里是目前完成时表示
到现在为止的常常性动作或事件吗？
这个if=whether，引导宾语从句。该从句隐含了一个虚拟条件句 If I were on a desert island. could和would都是虚拟语气使用方法，表示推断意义。
sometimes I've thought of... 就是你理解的截止现在有时会发生的事。习惯意义。sometimes改为always就更明显了。
