A person must pay dearly for the divine gift of creative
fire. It is as though each of us was born with a limited
store of energy. In the artist, the strongest force in his
make-up, that is, his creativeness, will seize and all
but monopolize this energy, leaving so little over that
nothing of value can come of it. The creative impulse
can drain him of his humanity to such a degree that
the personal ego can exist only on a primitive or
inferior level and is driven to develop all sorts of
defects-ruthlessness, selfishness ("autoeroticism"),
vanity, and other infantile traits. These inferiorities are
the only means by which it can maintain its vitality and
prevent itself from being wholly depleted.
C. G. Jung, Coll Works Vol 15
