“I am interested in madness. I believe it is the biggest thing in the human race, and the most constant. How do you take away from a man his madness without also taking away his identity?”

    -- William Saroyan

Emily Dickinson (1830–86).

Complete Poems.  1924.

Part One: Life

XI

MUCH madness is divinest sense

To a discerning eye;           

Much sense the starkest madness.           

’T is the majority           

In this, as all, prevails.

Assent, and you are sane;           

Demur,—you ’re straightway dangerous,           

And handled with a chain.

“It is only too true that a lot of artists are mentally ill- it's a life which, to put it mildly, makes one an outsider. I'm all right when I completely immerse myself in work, but I'll always remain half crazy.”

    -- Vincent van Gogh