Some split between the inner world and outer world is common to all behaviour, and the need to bridge the gap is the source of creative behaviour.

When a man suffers from delusions he is described as mad but when a million do so they belong to a world religion

Had [Winston Churchill] been a stable and equable man, he could never have inspired the nation. In 1940, when all the odds were against Britain, a leader of sober judgment might well have concluded that we were finished.

The human spirit is not indestructible; but a courageous few discover that, when in hell, they are granted a glimpse of heaven.

If creative work protects a man against mental illness, it is small wonder that he pursues it with avidity; and even if the state of mind he is seeking to avoid is no more than a mild state of depression or apathy, this still constitutes a cogent reason for engaging in creative work even when it brings no obvious external benefit in its train.

The creative person is constantly seeking to discover himself, to remodel his own identity, and to find meaning in what he creates.

It is true that many creative people fail to make mature personal relationships, and some are extremely isolated. It is also true that, in some instances, trauma, in the shape of early separation or bereavement, has steered the potentially creative person toward developing aspects of his personality which can find fulfillment in comparative isolation. But this does not mean that solitary, creative pursuits are themselves pathological.