"Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book. If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for."
American Novelist/Poet
1944 -
Can a person live a horrible personal life and still write great literature or paint great pictures? Should we make moral judgements on the personal lives that creative people live? Or should we separate the personal lives from the work? Not easy questions. Nor easy answers. Many writers and artists have done things in their personal lives that were not morally right. Where do we draw the line? Hitler? There are those who say all his paintings should be destroyed. Charles Dickens? He was not the best of husbands. John Cheever? He was a drunk. Like Alice Walker, I hope that art will make us better people, but I am not sure that it does. What do you think?
