“Let me point out, if it has escaped your notice, that what an artist does, is fail. Any reading of the literature (I mean the theory of artistic creation), however summary, will persuade you instantly that the paradigmatic artistic experience is that of failure. The actualization fails to meet, equal, the intuition. There is something “out there” which cannot be brought “here”. This is standard. I don’t mean bad artists, I mean good artists. There is no such thing as a “successful artist” (except, of course, in worldly terms). The proposition should read, “Susan becomes an artist and lives unhappily ever after”. This is the case. Don’t be deceived.”
- Donald Barthelme, ‘The Sandman’
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Interesting point. I’ve been musing over a similar idea. I take issue with the word “success.”