Kurtz, an ivory trader in Africa who turns into a mad killer, is described as "hollow at the core" (see p. 98 in Bantam edition and p. 133 in Signet Classics edition). Eliot considered using his last words, his summation of life, "The horror! The horror!" as an epigraph, but decided against it.
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"The Hollow Men" has on its title page a second epigraph, "Mistah Kurtz--he dead," taken from Conrad's