There is a pretty common myth out there about being creative and being messed up, in that it seems that we create better art if we are wrecked. In a way, the myth isn't a myth at all. We do seem to create good stuff when we are messed up, when we are flayed open and ruined, when the world is a weight and there's nothing to do but crawl into a bottle, to hide behind chemical curtains until things don't hurt anymore. We do create good stuff when were messed up. You can see it in the wreckage that Hollywood serves up, sacrificed for our entertainment, in the suicides and broken homes and arrests of creators. Brilliant art made by complete and utter ruin, human beings tortured by talent and psychological disaster. But it's not about being smashed; it is about honesty. The greatest, most heart-wrenching things we read and hear and watch come from someone who is just messed up enough to be honest, who is brave enough to just lay it out there for the...
Here in the Black and White