Life is more important than art; that's what makes art important.
"Is Art worth dying for?" Well I don't know a single inanimate object that's worth dying for.
So I had an operation. So what? If I die, I die. I'm more interested in my music.
I gave my genius to my life, but my talent to my art.
Of course I loved books more than people. Of course I valued "Jane Eyre" over the anonymous stranger...Of course all of Shakespeare was worth more than a human life.
I know I am making the choice most dangerous to an artist in valuing life above art.
We allow for many more gradations of personality in life than we do in art.
I started resenting how much art robs from life. I'd go to a party and I couldn't enjoy myself, even sexually. All I could think was how I was going to reinvent the experience into a piece of art.
Wherever art appears, life disappears.
