A lot of artists don't survive, do they? You work very hard and finally you get what you want and it destroys you.

We tend to make up the people we fall in love with

I think art, the discipline of creating, really does require tremendous solitude. But the whole creative process can seal your life to such an extent that while you're creating, you feel very self-sufficient. I've certainly experienced that.

Fame and success put tremendous demands on people. It robs them of their necessary privacy and anonymity. That's hard for even healthy people to deal with.

We derive a lot of the reality of ourselves through interactions with others.

Jack Kerouac did what he most wanted to do. He wrote great prose. He became the writer he wanted to be.

If you want to do creative work, there are tremendous sacrifices involved, and tremendous financial sacrifices too. It requires dedication and solitude.