You don't want to OD on improvisation.
An artist is somebody who enters into competition with God.
...my camera is my friend, and I take it everywhere.
Spare the child and spoil the rod, I am not sellin' myself to god.
I don't think public life in and of itself can destroy you. I think it's the way people react to it, and some people are more sturdy than others... I don't think any one faction can be blamed for a person's self destruction - a certain amount of that has to be innate.
A lot of children don't have a developed aesthetic. I did. I made early choices in life, even about cloth; I liked flannel and not polyester.