Being an artist separates you from things in general. One's mind is working at a faster, more sensitive, more rapid, eye-batting level than most people's. Most people, let's say, have ten perceptions per minute, whereas an artist has about sixty or seventy perceptions per minute.
Is that constant or are you able to turn off -or tone down- these perceptions?
I think that that's honestly the reason why so many writers drink or take pills or whatever: to calm themselves down, to quiet this continuous, rapid-running machine. I know that's why Tennessee Williams did. He had to take sedatives and drinks like that because he had one of the most rapid-running, perceptive minds. He didn't sleep very well.
And you?
I have a lot of problems sleeping.
Lawrence, G. (1985) Conversations With Capote. Hutchinson: London.
