Louis Auchincloss Quotes

Of course creativity is a mystery. We don't know what drives it or what constitutes it. It's one of those things, like genius, you know it when you see it but it's impossible to define.

I think that I'm so psychotic and so mentally ill that if I could tap into that I could do something really interesting.

No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.

There was never a genius without a tincture of madness.

Human beings have speculated about the relationship between inspiration and insanity for centuries.

Well, I think in my first two novels, both the characters are pretty neurotic, which I would say that I am.

There is no great genius without some touch of madness.

Gaiety is a quality of ordinary men. Genius always presupposes some disorder in the machine.

Could we teach taste or genius by rules, they would be no longer taste and genius.

Young men and young women, full of courage, originality, and genius, are everywhere to be met with.

We are obliged to regard many of our original minds as crazy at least until we have become as clever as they are.

I can't dislike you, but I will say this to you: you haven't got long before you are all going to kill yourselves, because you are all crazy. And you can project it back at me, but I am only what lives inside each and every one of you.

Genius is a potential that lives within you and every other human being. You have many moments of genius in your lifetime. These are the times when you have a uniquely brilliant idea and implement it even if only you are aware of how fantastic it is.

Only a bad artist thinks he has a good idea. A good artist does not need anything.

The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.

What is genius but the power of expressing a new individuality?

Everything great in the world comes from neurotics. They alone have founded our religions and composed our masterpieces.

I'm always asked if the songs that I write are therapeutic, and my answer is a quick no. In fact, it could be argued that they exacerbate my neurosis.

I'm terrified of therapy because I don't want it to mess with my creativity.

Upper berth, lower berth, that's the difference between talent and genius.

And I know I'm paranoid and neurotic, I've made a career out of it.

A possible link between 'madness' and genius is one of the oldest and most persistent of cultural notions.

No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.

How many artists subscribe to the notion that creative success depends on input from the fickle muse or her modern avatar, mental illness? Probably very few.

You have certain writing tools but generally creating something from nothing makes one quite mad and Cynthia and I are quite mad you know.