Out of sync

 I don’t wish a serious writer’s life on anyone. I agree with screenwriter Paul Schrader, who said the only reason to be an artist is that you’re incapable of being anything else. The meshing of the work and the life into a quilt of whole cloth is full of complications for every step of “a normal life,” from relationships to employment.             
 In America, it’s not clear what the purpose of literature is other than to be swept into a marketplace driven by star and money worship. If literature mattered, wouldn’t Graham Greene’s novel The Quiet American have made the Vietnam War impossible? Philip Glass has suggested that all works of art should be anonymous to rid the field of hero worship. I agree with him.

Deemer, Charles. Whole Cloth: the Quilt of Literature