The artistic life is a long and lovely suicide precisely because it involves the negation of self; as Highsmith imagined herself as her characters, so Ripley takes on the personae of others and in doing so metamorphoses himself into a 'living' work of art. A return to the 'real life' after a period of creativity resulted in a fall in spirits, an agony Highsmith felt acutely. She voiced this pain in the novel via Bernard's quotation of an excerpt from Derwatt's notebook: 'There is no depression for the artist except that caused by a return to the self'.Andrew Wilson
About This Quote
Highsmith, an artist whose work is now recognized as one of the most important contributions to the medium of detective fiction, wrote in her journal that she felt 'an agony' when she returned to the 'real life' after a period of creativity. This pain was expressed in her work via Bernard's quotation of an excerpt from Derwatt's notebook. Derwatt was a German painter who committed suicide by throwing himself into the Rhine River in 1951. Highsmith was an American author whose work has been recognized as one of the most important contributions to the genre of detective fiction. She also wrote in her journal that she felt 'an agony' when she returned to the 'real life' after a period of creativity.
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