Nick Cave gives advice on love and heartbreak in latest The Red Hand Files response

In the latest response on Cave's The Red Hand Files Q+A site, Cave answers two questions, one from 17-year-old Mauro, who asks Cave to tell them about love, and the second from Jenny in Paris, who asks: "How do I not have my heart broken?"

Responding to both questions, Cave writes, "The surest way to avoid a broken heart is to love nothing and no-one - not your partner, your child, your mother or father, your brothers or sisters; not your friends; not your neighbour; not your dog or your cat; not your football team, your garden, your granny or your job. In short, love not the world and love nothing in it."

"Beware of the things that draw you to love - music, art, literature, cinema, philosophy, nature and religion," Cave continues. "Keep your heart narrow, hard, cynical, invulnerable, impenetrable, and shun small acts of kindness; be not merciful, forgiving, generous or charitable - these acts expand the heart and make you susceptible to love - because as Neil Young so plainly and painfully sings, ‘Only love can break your heart.’ In short, resist love, because real love, big love, true love, fierce love, is a perilous thing, and travels surely towards its devastation. A broken heart - that grief of love - is always love’s true destination. This is the covenant of love."

Replying to Mauro's question, Cave adds, "to resist love and inoculate yourself against heartbreak is to reject life itself, for to love is your primary human function. It is your duty to love in whatever way you can, and to move boldly into that love - deeply, dangerously and recklessly - and restore the world with your awe and wonder. This world is in urgent need - desperate, crucial need - and is crying out for love, your love. It cannot survive without it."

Cave concludes, "I have only one piece of advice for you both, and it is the very best that I can give. Love. The world is waiting."